TLC ¤ AFTER CHRONICLES ¤ Year of the Cat
by ArkNorth
Summary: Chapter Seven ¤ Legendaries ¤ Shadowcat finds herself within The Heart of the Stratus, core of the Stratus League, where she finds Entei and a teacher in the form of a Cheverian ¤ Follow up to The Lugia Chronicles.
1. Prelude to a Life Forever Changed

**A Note from the Author:**

Even though I created this series of stories as a complete separate plotline, it is intertwined within the stories that make up _**THE LUGIA CHRONICLES**_(TLC), which may also be found here on FFN (story #1272028). Therefore, before you start working through these stories about the PokéMorph Shadowcat, I would suggest that reading TLC first will help in understanding these stories better.

As for the character of Shadowcat herself – there are two distinct origins that surround her - one is obviously my interpretation - the other is S. E. Nordwall's, her online creator. While her Shadowcat tended to be fun-loving, occasionally a bit goofy, but at times could be an expert Team Rocket operative, my version tended to be the latter, the more adventurous dynamic character forced into the world she now lives in. But, as my stories have stated, this is perfectly normal as different realities can create different personalities, of which both of us have taken advantage of in past roll playing games with each other – to the point where she once brought both versions of Shadow together (What'ta mess!) That is why I love this lady so much – she understands this, and uses it to our mutual advantage in many ways. You never know which version of Shadowcat you'll run into next. But isn't that the reason for being a cat anyway? Being mysterious?

One other thing to note – ALL three story arcs I have on FFN interlink, mostly through the use of my characters from _The Observers_ and a piece of paper called _The Treaty of Advent_. This means that in one form or another, _The Lugia Chronicles_ and all its sub-arcs, _TRIGUN: MOON CHILD_ in both of its arcs, and _Haibane Renmei: C O R P O R A T I O N_ all have an intertwined story that draws them all together - oddly, in reverse to the way that they are being presented. So if you want to have some fun seeing things presented in a unique way, read these other series as well, even if you're not into Pokémon, TRIGUN or Haibane Renmei. If you find the connections, you too will be connected! ;-)

Enjoy the stories!

_**R. A. Stott - ArkNorth Productions/DMS**_

Rev. - June 2007

--------------------------------

Originally Published Spring 2000  
First Published on FFN: 03/23/03  
Original FFN #1280256/1

**A F T E R ¤ C H R O N I C L E S  
Y E A R ¤ O F ¤ T H E ¤ C A T**

**By R. A. Stott**

_Based on characters by S. E. Nordwall and R. A. Stott_

**Chapter One**

**Prelude to a Life Forever Changed**

Late afternoon in a desert community west of Phoenix, AZ. If you were smart, you were indoors staying cool. At that particular time of year, even as the winter months were rapidly coming up, the outdoors was just flat out hot. And if monsoon season showed up on time, wet, steamy and hot. Stay in, stay cool – that was the order of the day.

In the back in the house, a small box was showing Ash Ketchum as he was begging to some Clefairy to let his beloved Pikachu go. Stacey had seen this episode before, but that didn't matter. Just watching the show removed some of the stress of the day – the hot, sticky, no AC in the truck day. She had sketched a few odds and ends while the television played on. It all was fluff and nonsense - But fun fluff and nonsense as all she needed.

She was in the house by herself that day - Well, almost by herself - One of her cats, Shadow, was sleeping beside her on her bed. It was late afternoon and it was starting to get dark early. She watched as Shadow rolled onto its back - Foolish feline. She tickled its belly.

_The house looks small on the monitor - A touch isolated from the rest - Scans showed it has a perfect target - There is a relatively young specimen, not too small, not too large - The proper weight and shape - It should do nicely._

The image of a lion with flames flowing from its mane was evolving on her sketch pad. On the television the picture rolled… which was odd... she had not seen it do that since they had put in satellite. Pictures didn't roll, they broke up… strange…

The picture rolled again, only this time it was replaced by the dreaded blue screen. Nuts... the dish is out… Which was also odd, as it normally only did that when it was raining outside – a glance out the window showed her no clouds in the sky.

Suddenly, Shadow snapped about on the bed, its ears twisting and turning as it heard some sounds that Stacey failed to hear. The cat leapt across over to the dresser and into the open window beside it. Stacey watched as Shadow looked to the darkening southwestern skies. She put down her sketch pad and peered out the window as well.

Shadow stared at the twilight, its ears locked on something to the west.

"What is it Shadow?" Stacey asked, giving the cat a scratch across its head.

"Merowl?" The cat glanced back, pressing its head into Stacey's hand. It then leaped out the window into a nearby bush.

"Shadow!" Stacey called. She ran out of the bedroom and through the house as quickly as she could. As she reached the west side of the rancher, the ground began to shake and a light illuminated the edge of the building.

"SHADOW!" she shouted as the glow was now joined by a loud drumming, throbbing sound that beat her ears and shook her bones. She rounded the house. Looking up a small hill between scrub brush that lined a small path, she could see her Shadow cowering at the base of a shaft of light, looking skywards and unmoving. At the top of the light was a saucer shaped craft.

_"A target has been acquired... standing by..."_

_"Hold..."_

_"Holding..."_

"SHADOW!" she shouted again. Stacey ran up the hill as fast as she could, her glasses falling away as the wind blew pieces of scrub into her face.

"Merollllw!" Shadow cried. It was a pitiful yell that made Stacey more determined to grab her kitty.

_"Secondary target acquired... standing by..."_

_"Stand by..."_

The light struck Stacey hard - How could light be hard? She felt as if she were moving through thick syrup. She reached down and gathered her gray kitty as it continued to cry. Moving through the light was odd feeling. Not only did it feel like syrup, it reacted like it as well as the spots where she touched Shadow's fur remained pressed in as if it were wet.

Stacey gazed back at her house. It looked like it was being illuminated by an arc welder. Each window was reflecting what the building was seeing - a young girl, her cat, and a bright light bathing them. Even the lenses of her glasses on the ground nearby were glaring in white.

"SHAAAADOWWW!" she heard herself yell, as she attempted to run back down the hill, but found that entering the syrup was easy, leaving it wasn't. She fell back, landing on one knee.

Something tapped her on the forehead. She looked up to see what it was. A small stone or pebble floated by. She looked about and found many more stones and pebbles floating up off the ground. Then, her own shoulder length blond hair started to follow the floating gravel.

"Merrrowlll!" Shadow cried as they started to rise off the ground.

She looked through the light. A few neighbors could be seen in the street far down the hill.

"HELLLP MEEE!! HELLLLP MEEEEEEE - - PLEASE!"

It had been a struggle to even move in the light, let alone speak. But that last 'please' came out as a squeak as she and Shadow were suddenly free to move again. She was on a white floor in a gray-white room. Then it rained pebbles and stones.

She covered Shadow as she was pelted by the spray of gravel. The cat was absolutely terrified and wanted out of her arms, but she wouldn't release her hold.

_"Stasis..."_

A blue light now bathed them, and Shadow stopped struggling. Stacey felt her muscles stop responding to her thoughts, and she could see the world dropping into a pit, as if the power to her eyes were turned down, but not off.

Her mind was racing. She could still feel slightly. She felt hands grab her shoulders, gently lifting her up. She had been frozen in the crouched position. They unfolded her. She still held her Shadow as they turned her over onto a flat surface. A bright light over her prevented any way of seeing clearly who was moving her about. She saw the form of Shadow move across the light being held in odd looking hands. They seemed like they were made up of three round fingers.

Sounds were even harder to discern than what she could see. Forms moved by, and noises were warped and strange. She saw a head out of the corner of her motionless eye. She concentrated on that peripheral vision.

Something pressed against her left temple and her neck. She felt something move inside her, a fluid or something. Now it really was getting hard to see and feel.

The head moved over the light. A head she recognized. It was blocky and angled. She struggled to remain conscious enough to see...

…MewTwo?

Darkness fell. She wasn't asleep. She simply felt adrift. Void was a freeing feeling. You float. You fly.

You fall...

------------------------------

She hit her forehead with the back of her hand.

It was soft.

For the last five years, it had been soft and furry. Shadowcat had fallen asleep by the fire she had made to heat her Rocket Stew. Her Aslanti, a rare Pyrlion Fire Lion Pokémon, looked over at his mistress with slight concern. She had that dream again, and he knew it. He looked over at Shadow's other Pokémon, another rare specimen, Bakagoat of the Ice, as it lay asleep under a tree avoiding the fire. It never seemed to notice when Shadowcat was upset by these visions of her past. Then again, it usually acted just plain loco anyway, so best it was asleep.

She reached over and stirred the glob that had been rendered in the pot. Umm - thick... ugh.

Aslanti nuzzled up to her. She reached over and scratched him behind his ear as he always liked. Oh well, blackened Rocket Stew was better than nothing. Tomorrow would be the big mission. The last six months had been a busy one for her and her Pokémon. And tomorrow, just maybe she'd get her hands on the person responsible for her furry condition.

She looked down on the com unit that sat on top of her backpack of goods. She wondered how things were going back at headquarters. The last few months, she had been on quite a few missions that weren't exactly authorized by Team Rocket, but by a sub branch of the group called the Golden R. She sighed. It almost felt good to work with them, rather than Giovanni, the creep, but to do it with basically a partner for once - someone to watch her back so to say, that was a kick.

Tomorrow on the other hand, she would be alone. Some events back at headquarters were preventing her normal help from being there. She could feel it in the air that night. Something was dreadfully wrong, but she had been ordered to stay away, stay on her own mission. Her friend had helped her enough that she respected his request. She'd stay on her mission, he'd stay on his. But she missed her other new friends in the Golden R, even though she technically wasn't a member. She missed Bucky, the rascal. Derek... Hydron... Even Ayako and Fuego... Then there's Ziggy...

Aslanti snorted. Then she realized she'd been saying their names out loud, and the Pyrlion knew who Ziggy was - that 'OTHER' cat... that PERSIAN! She laughed and stroked his fur.

Then there was North. She took a spoonful of stew and gagged it down. What was he doing tonight? She sighed and rested her head on her knees.

She reached down to the com unit. He had told her to keep radio silence for the next 48 hours. But, there wasn't anything he said telling her she couldn't listen. She put the headset on, turning the mic off so not to broadcast anything, and listened in on the multitude of channels the small device could get.

It squawked and hummed on some of the lower settings. Then she hit one channel that made her stop. It was Giovanni.

"He's here," Giovanni said over the com. The tone made Shadow's fur bristle.

"Standing orders, sir?" another voice said in response to the boss' comment.

"Correct. But wait until the operation outside is complete before sending in your TS force... I'd rather he were alone when you capture him... In his present form, you may be able to use a PokéBall!"

The channel went silent as the other voice laughed at Giovanni. Shadow felt wary. What was that devil up to? She turned to another setting.

"Flight leader to Flight One... Ghosts at the Silph... Repeat, ghosts at the Silph..." came a remarkably clear signal.

"Roger, sir... Stand by - entering atmosphere... code blue alpha on a vector of 2 7 0 mark 9…"

High above her, Shadow watched five streaks of flame cross the sky heading east. Whatever North was up to, it had begun. She looked back at the mountain behind her. Her mission was up there, not at the Silph. She sighed again, and turned off the com. The stew really was beyond all hope. She laid back and watched the stars until she dozed off in Aslanti's forepaws.

------------------------------

"My, you're a sight," she heard. She felt groggy and pained. She found herself on the ground, her clothes a tattered mess, and some wires and tubes still attached to her. Her blurry vision cleared slightly, and she moved some of her hair out of her eyes. She was in a fog shrouded forest. The voice had come from a pair of feet that were standing on a nearby path. "What kind of Pokémon are you, my dear?" they asked.

"RRrrrrwhatrr... whatrrr... what arerrr you talking about?" she attempted to ask, but found herself unable to form her words fully for some reason. "I ammm not a Poké... Pokémonrrrr..."

"That I would agree with, my dear... I don't know of many people who would dress a Pokémon in clothes, lest of all, those clothes.

She felt something drape across her. It was a jacket - A red jacket.

"G... Giovanni!" Stacey said, looking up at the face of the person who had just covered her in his jacket.

"My!" he said. "What a pretty one... If you're an escapee from the boys at Splice and Dice... they've out done themselves..."

"What?" Stacey said as the world continued to spin about her. She slid back a bit, but found a tree behind her. She looked at it as a piece jabbed her. It had an ugly scar on it, as if something had struck it long ago.

"What is your name, my dear?" Giovanni asked, bending down to squat on his knees. Stacey looked around him and saw the eyes of a Persian looking at her. It stood almost gawking at her.

"S-Staceyrrr..." she stammered. She could feel the world falling on her again. "Space shiprrr... Shadow... where's my Shadow?"

She could see Giovanni's expression change when she said spaceship. She saw him pull out a cell phone before she passed out again.

Shadowcat awoke to Aslanti's snore next to her ear. Great alarm clock he was.

oOo

Characters from Pokémon ©2000, 07 The Pokémon Company/ Nintendo/Creatures/GameFreak

Shadowcat (Shadow, Shadsie), Aslanti, Pyrlion, Bakagoat (Baka) ©2000-03, 05, 07 S.E. Nordwall – Used with Permission  
The Observers ©2000-03, 05, 07 R. A. Stott/Denivan Media Services – Used with Permission  
North, Bucky, Derek, Hydron, Ziggy ©2000-03, 05, 07 The Lugia Project/DMS – Used with Permission  
Ayako, Fuego ©2000-03, 05, 07 R. A. Stott/Ayako/The Lugia Project/DMS – Used with Permission

Story ©2000-03, 05, 07 S. E. Nordwall/R. A. Stott - The Lugia Project II/DMS

Edit - 0501.01 - 0706.30


	2. Into the Mix

Originally Published Spring 2000  
First Published on FFN : 03/23/03  
Original FFN #1280256/2

**A F T E R ¤ C H R O N I C L E S  
Y E A R ¤ O F ¤ T H E ¤ C A T**

**By R. A. Stott**

_Based on characters by S. E. Nordwall and R. A. Stott_

**Chapter Two**

**Into the Mix**

She stormed into the building without a sound. Security missed her totally. It wasn't like she was trying to be stealthy, that was just the way she was. Though, even if she had noticed, there was a bustling about the Silph Company building that day anyway that probably kept most from even seeing her, even if they were looking for her.

He on the other hand, had expected her - Just not so soon.

"Hey Ziggy... company..." North announced as he examined his own security system which was much more accurate than the rest of the building's. He was supervising the removal of ceramic shielding from the outside walls, a vestige of the battles of earlier in the week. A small robotic shop-vac was busy under his feet, cleaning the floors of the lab of some red material and scraps.

Ziggy was in his usual spot on top of the refrigerator, allowing his Persian body to soak in the vibrations of its compressor. He sniffed the air, his eyes popping open. He whirled about and quickly primped and washed himself. He then sat upright and waited.

"Oh, very regal," North commented, shaking his head and returning to his work.

The door to his lab slammed open. A dark gray figure with a head of blond hair entered. Her eyes were burning with anger and rage. Ziggy saw the look on her face and dropped the regal look for a look of cautious watching as he cowered back.

"Shadow..." North said, expecting the worst. He kept his cool, but knew this was one person to respect.

"They destroyed it!" she growled, teeth flashing. "The creeps took it apart, Rob!"

North sighed and sat down behind a work desk, pinching his eyes and moving his glasses to his forehead. "How bad?" he asked.

Shadow flung parts and housings at the desk. North sighed again as he started to sift through it using the end of a pen to move items about.

"Hummm... it's rebuildable..."

Shadow leaned over the desk and watched him fiddle with the bits. She had dealt with many of Team Rocket's scientist, usually as a subject of theirs in a guinea pig sort of way. She hated them. But this one... He seemed... different.

"...Except..." North added.

"Except?" She didn't need to hear 'except!' Her tail snapped as it flicked behind her in an angry crack. Ziggy dropped his head into his forepaws, ears flattened in worry.

"...except that they took the core..."

"The core?" she snarled.

North removed his glasses and dropped them on the desk. "The dynamitic stasis core... It's used to stabilize the molecules when the Morpher is in use. Without it, the body molecules would disperse..."

Shadow looked at the scientist as if he had just spoken perfect Vulcan. "What?"

North gave her a sad smile. "Sorry... they removed the core unit that would keep a body this device would be used on from simply vanishing into nothing."

Shadowcat looked at the pile of jumbled parts on the table. Six months ago, she was with this Robert North and Giovanni at a test site for some new Pokémon morphing project being run by the Cloning Research Department, or as the Professor had cracked at the time, the 'Splice and Dice' division. They had expected to see some sort of strange new evolution to be shown to them. What they got was an unexpected visit from a rival group.

A wall had burst across from the scientists, Giovanni and Shadowcat, flinging them all back against test beds, lab equipment, and stray Pokémon.

"Ah do declare! Do prepare!" a voice from behind all the smoke cried.

"JESSEBELLE!" Shadow snarled.

"Who?" Giovanni asked, knocking dust off himself.

"Oh god... not another motto!" North mumbled as he climbed out from under a collapsed tray of equipment.

"To bring the world mah domination!

"To make all peoples mah slave relations!

"To make the world have respect!

"Or Ah will show them mah etiquette!"

_**SHHWACK!!**_ blistered her whip.

"Jessebelle! Ah do declare!

"Surrender now, or you'll all despair!"

"That's IT!" Giovanni roared. "Who IS this!?" He was getting tired of all the different mottoes being lobbed at him all the time, now he was getting one by someone who wasn't even one of his agents! He was going to have to get his secretary Ms. Shard on it.

"Rogue element, Gio!" North said, while scurrying across the floor over to him. "An upstart rival attempting to muscle in on your business... you'll find a dossier on her in the Kojiro's File."

"Upstart am Ah?" Jessebelle gritted. "Ah'll show YOU upstart!"

_**SHHHHWACK!**_

North had managed to grab a large enamel steel pot lid as he had come across the floor and used it to deflect the striking of the whip. But it still stung his hand, and the metal lid clattered as it landed in front of Shadow.

Shadow was hunkering down, looking for her opportunity to strike this fatale.

"Ah ah!" Jessebelle said as she waved a finger at her. She pulled a dart gun out of her circus master's outfit and held it up. "None of your heroics, Miss Kitty!"

Shadow saw the pistol in Jessebelle's hand and looked quickly about for an escape, but found she had landed in a rather inopportune location between some heavy workstations. She was gritting her teeth and awaiting the inevitable sting of the needle when a small rectangular box slid in front of her just as Jessebelle fired. The dart bounced off a force field that it had generated.

"Stay back Shadow!" North called to her. "That's just a prototype... the field works both ways unfortunately!"

"Swell..." she said as she reached out with a claw and felt the tingle of the energy screen a few inches in front of her.

"Do you have another one of those?" Giovanni asked.

"Umm, no," North answered. "That was the device I was going to show you this morning after all this..."

"You should have saved it... for me!" the chief growled back. North rolled his eyes then looked back over at Shadow. She had heard Giovanni's last remark and hated him even more than usual. North had saved her from the dart, but now she was trapped by the device, unable to do anything but watch. A sound coming from the floor caught her attention. She looked down.

The words 'This thing has a limited life span' appeared before her. It had been scrawled in the dust between her knees. It was then followed by 'Get ready...'

She looked up in shock. She glanced over at North, who gave her a wink. Had he sent that message? She saw his finger on the floor as if he had just written...

"What do you want?" Stinebok, the Clone Lab's director demanded as he stood up from behind a research table over in the corner to North's right – That was a bad move. He found himself entwined in Jessebelle's whip and was yanked across the table, scattering test tubes and beakers of chemicals.

"MEOWROL!" cried Giovanni's Persian, who had hunkered down behind his master and North, as he was splashed with some chemical on one of his paws. Shadow watched as North quickly was on the Pokémon, administering yet another something from his pockets, this time a foam spray that looked like shaving cream.

"Your attention is best kept up here!" Giovanni hissed.

"I know what's going on up there," North hissed back. Shadow had never heard anyone snap back at the boss before... this was different! "Besides, consider the Vet bills I'm saving you... that was a sulfuric bath he got dosed in," he added, while spraying the foam over the rest of the fluid on the floor.

While North had worked on the Persian, Jessebelle had yanked the scientist over to her. "Why, where are mah manners?" she cracked. "Ah knocked on your wall, and forget to ask what Ah want? Mercy! Ah must be slippin'!" She pulled on her whip, sending the scientist spinning into another tray of materials. It crashed loudly with Stinebok riding it into the table.

Shadow watched the device before her for a sign of deactivation. A small red LED on one end started to blink. She figured if it went out, it had shut off. She readied herself.

"Thanks North..." her sharp hearing caught. Who had said that? It was too soft for anyone else to hear. She looked over at the Tech Lab chief as he returned to Giovanni's side. The Persian was behind him, his paw still swathed in foam.

"Now! Ah've come for some goodies!" Jessebelle yelled. "Pokémon, GO!"

Shadow watched as six Tangla and a pair of Marril bounded into the room.

"Tangla! Get THAT one!" Jessebelle instructed her vine shrouded critters. "He seems to have the best goodies!"

Two of the Tangla grabbed North by an arm each, snaring him and raising him off the floor. A Marril then jumped up on him and began shuffling through his deep lab coat pockets.

"Hey!" he shouted. "Get out of there! That's my lunch!"

"MEROWLR!" the Persian snarled, but then got a face full of sleep powder. Giovanni, who had scrambled back to avoid North's trussing was also hit. He almost looked cute, dozing off on the back of his Persian.

Shadow was now steaming. She hated the scientists, but this one seemed different, and he was being shaken down after saving her! She had to do something, ANYTHING!

"CONSTRICT," she scratched into the ground, then looked at the pair of Tangla that held North. But the force field flared, and she watched as an aluminum cart next to them suddenly was scrunched into a little ball! Blasted scientist! So much for her mental powers. He may be saving her tail, but his own device was frying his own!

"Nice try!" North said to her, watching the Marril rummage through his pockets. Shadow was surprised at the stuff coming out - boxes, tools, equipment that should have weighed him down to the floor! Then, the Marril jumped INTO one of the pockets, pushing huge things from it!"

"You break it, YOU bought it!" North barked. "Hey, those dimensional buffers weren't designed for a Marril!"

"Marril - Marril!" the blue water mouse chirped. It shoved a series of small black devices out of the pocket and onto the floor. They all looked vaguely alike, though they obviously also were all different. Switches, buttons, dials and readouts made each unit unique. They all seemed to be tagged with a code to tell North what they were supposed to do.

"Boss! Boss!" was heard from behind the lab's doors. Security finally had arrived - Took them long enough Shadow thought.

"That's enough, mah precious little dearies!" Jessebelle cooed to her Pokémon. "Collect what you've found, an' let's get goin'!"

The red LED finally turned off on the box in front of Shadow. She looked down beside it, and saw the dart that Jessebelle had shot at her. She grabbed it and flung it back at her. She didn't wait to see the results, as she jumped over towards North's position.

"OW!" she heard as she stood in front of North and the Tanglas that had him. The Marril had climbed out of the pockets, and were now looking at the angry cat-person before them with a great deal of worry in their faces.

The Tanglas sprayed sleep dust at Shadow, but she managed to jump over it. Landing on the table behind North, she turned to attend to the twisted vine Pokémon once again.

The other four had rummaged though the lab's own stockpile of genetics research and results. She saw them carrying equipment, PokéBalls, Scientific Dexters, and assorted pieces of cloning specimens. When she looked down, she saw the Marril busy tossing the clutter removed from North's pockets into the Tanglas that held him. The vines that made up these Pokémon hid the equipment well. She was about to strike, when a moan from across the room got all of their attentions.

Jessebelle was half standing, half kneeling, her right arm dangling limp from her shoulder, the dart still hanging from the cloth of her uniform. She had her head down to them. She looked as if she were laughing.

"Dixon... Dixon, you fool..." she mumbled. "Hah ha ha ha... Dixon... it's not doing what it was supposed tah, Dixon... ha ha ha..."

"Dixon?" North barked from his upside-down position. "Dixon Manley?"

"Boss!" came a yell from outside the lab's door, as the security men attempted to break it down, but being a lab's door, it was reinforced to prevent such a thing. "Break it down!" one said. Then another said, "Stand back!"

The shot of a gun was heard, and the handle to the door flew off.

The sound made Jessebelle look up. What Shadow saw sent a chill through her. North cocked his head. "Well, that's a different look..."

Jessebelle's face showed the signs of a mutation taking place. Obviously, what was meant for Shadow wasn't meant for a non-transformed human. As they watched, her lip split, her nose darkened, and a muzzle started to form on her face. But what changed most dramatically were her eyes. She blinked, and they changed each time she did. They finally settled on slightly oval, golden yellow eyes with cat-like slits.

Shadow saw herself in the transformation. She paused for a moment.

"Pokémonnnnn!" Jessebelle called with a slight cat-like cry in her voice. "Follow meeee!"

North found himself being flung at the now opening door to the lab, as the Tanglas followed their master out the hole in the wall.

Shadow finally snapped out of her slight stunned shock of seeing what may have been her own transformation before her. She jumped down from the table and headed for the hole after the Tanglas. She heard someone say "Stop!" She had just reached the opening, when something stuck her shoulder. Suddenly the world flashed in a brilliant explosion of white lights and colored rainbows that surrounded the outside of her vision. As she started to black out, she heard North yelling something about an idiot.

It smelled nasty. It was something that burned the insides of her nose and sinuses. Her eyes flew wide, though the view was blurry at first.

"No, take the Persian to Tech Lab 1," North was saying to someone. "I'll take care of the wound there." The blur cleared up, revealing the scientist sitting beside her as she lay on a stretcher. He gently moved some of her blond hair that had fallen across her face to one side. "How do you feel?" he asked, tossing an ammonia capsule aside.

"Who's an idiot?" she moaned.

North smiled and gave a slight laugh. "A rookie security officer who didn't know about you. He thought you were the reason for the emergency, and shot you with his Taser."

"Taser? Uhhh..." she said, rubbing the sore and tender spots on her right shoulder.

"You're out of action, Shadowcat," North said to her. "You just took 12,000 volts, and you were grounded. You'll feel woozy for a bit. Best to sleep it off." He nodded, and the stretcher lifted off the ground.

"Huh! Wait!" she said. "W-where are they taking me?" she weakly asked, fearing her possible destinations.

North cocked his head, and leaned down to her. "Your quarters at Café Rockét of course," he said. "You just need a good night's sleep... and you probably need to get away from the Splice and Dice crew here before they get some wild idea about you, right?" He rubbed her cheek, and she weakly smiled.

North looked at the stretcher bearers. "Is that clear?" he said, more sternly than he had to her.

"Yes, sir!" they said in unison. Shadow noticed the young man at her feet was a standard black shirt, not a security officer. He wore a belt-full of PokéBalls around his waist. She just managed to see that the ball bore a small gold R on the beam emitter.

Uhhh... the strain of looking at something that small was a bit much for that moment. She felt herself fall again.

oOo

Characters from Pokémon ©2000, 07 The Pokémon Company/ Nintendo/Creatures/GameFreak

Shadowcat (Shadow, Shadsie), Aslanti, Pyrlion, Bakagoat (Baka) ©2000-03, 05, 07 S.E. Nordwall – Used with Permission  
The Observers ©2000-03, 05, 07 R. A. Stott/Denivan Media Services – Used with Permission  
North, Bucky, Derek, Hydron, Ziggy ©2000-03, 05, 07 The Lugia Project/DMS – Used with Permission  
Ayako, Fuego ©2000-03, 05, 07 R. A. Stott/Ayako/The Lugia Project/DMS – Used with Permission

Story ©2000-03, 05, 07 S. E. Nordwall/R. A. Stott - The Lugia Project II/DMS

Edit - 0501.01 - 0706.30


	3. History Lessons

Originally Published in Spring 2000  
First Published on FFN: 03/23/03  
Original FFN #1280256/3

**A F T E R ¤ C H R O N I C L E S  
Y E A R ¤ O F ¤ T H E ¤ C A T**

**By R. A. Stott**

_Based on characters by S. E. Nordwall and R. A. Stott  
With References to Steve Brunton's "Terminal Solutions"_

**Chapter Three**

**History Lessons**

Morning - She blearily looked at the foul sun blazing into her bedroom window. It stung her eyes. It was a bright and cheery day... blaaa.

She attempted to raise her head. Uhhh, it felt like she had the mattress sticking out of her mouth, and her shoulder still hurt. That pain alone told her that it wasn't all a dream. She plunked her head back down again, and from the comfort of her pillow, spied on the room with one slightly askew eye.

Well, she was in HER room. She recognized many items about... that was good. She looked above her bed at the cradle that held her PokéBalls. Aslanti's and Baka's PokéBalls sat in their mounts, as she had left them the day before... but... What was with the third one?

Disheveled, she managed to get part way up from the prone position she had been in for what must have been some time - her joints were all stiff. She reached up and took the strange PokéBall.

A gold R was on its emitter. On the red section was the image of a PokéBall with a halo over top of it - Odd.

The image of the black shirt shot through her mind - the man that North had assigned the task of getting her back to her room safely - his PokéBall had the same little golden R on it. What did it mean? And what was with this other logo?

She raised the ball to her ear and shook it, as if that would tell her if there was anything inside. She rolled over and sat up in her bed and continued to examine the device. Other than the R and the picture, it looked like a normal PokéBall, though it was slightly larger than a normal one. She shrugged then tossed it at the end of her bed.

She expected it to deposit whatever was inside it. The ball bounced against the footboard and fell onto the mattress. It popped opened and did nothing else - Very odd.

Then, extruding itself from the opened halves, in an un-normal releasing move, a small Pokémon STEPPED out of the ball. The ball had not deposited it. The creature looked as if it had simply walked out of it - Very strange.

It was a small Pikachu. It raised a paw and said "Squeak!"

Shadow looked over her knees at the strange little Pokémon. "Well, at least someone gave me breakfast," she said to herself, but still out loud.

"Squeak!" the Pikachu said, lifting off the bed. Shadow moved away slightly at the sight of the now flying Pikachu. This was a different way to wake up in the morning indeed.

The Pikachu reached into the PokéBall halves and pulled out a long piece of paper. He then handed it to Shadow. She reluctantly took it and examined it. It was a note from Professor North.

"Shadow... I hope your rest was good. When I wrote this message, you had already been asleep for 2 days..."

Shadow's eyes flew wide. 2 days!? She reached over and looked at a watch on her side table. It read Saturday... 3 days since the lab incident! She felt her stomach growl. She had been scheduled to start a mission on Friday... Buggers! She returned to the letter.

"...If you've sufficiently recovered from the Taser shock, please come to Tech Lab One as soon as you are capable. You will find Derek outside awaiting you. He will attend to your every need until you get here, as will our little friend here. His name is Bucky. Don't be surprised if he flies about. He's a special Pikachu on loan to me."

Shadow looked at the floating Pikachu, who was now waiving a strange rod in front of her and reading a small box. It beeped, and he pressed a button on it and then tossed the entire assembly into the PokéBall - Extremely strange...

"Be careful of the PokéBall that Bucky came from. It is not a true PokéBall, as you know it. It is designed as a storage unit, rather than a Pokémon's home. Don't get drawn into it by accident."

"I'm not a Pokémon, North," she mumbled.

"Squeak!" Bucky said, pointing at the next line of the note.

"I know you're not a Pokémon," it said. She tossed the note and leaned on her knees, watching the yellow rodent float before her.

"Who is this guy?" she asked the Pikachu.

"Squeak!" it said.

She gave a slight laugh, resting her throbbing head on her knees. "A floating Pikachu that can't do its own call..." Then she remembered the note about the person outside. She attempted to stand up - Difficult indeed, seeing how long she had been in bed. Her clothes, which were now 3 days old, and had been twisting and turning in bed with her, were now a tangled mess on her body. They weren't helping anything. She stumbled towards the door to her room.

She reached out and managed to push the door handle down. It cracked opened, and she stuck a dazed - half awake look out it. Sure enough, outside the room were a Black Shirt and a Vaporeon. The Rocket stood up and saluted her.

"Ma'am!" he said, his voice ringing in her ears as if hung over. "My name is Derek... is there anything I can get for you?"

She groggily looked at the lad. "Breakfast!" she said.

"Yes ma'am!" he said, and headed down the stairs in the direction of the cafe's kitchen. She had a gopher! Neat!

Now, it was six months later. She stood beside a man who had given her so much hope, and he was desperately trying to find answers where answers failed to appear. All he had was a pile of scrap. But to her, he had given nothing but further questions about himself, which only caused her to question more about herself. Ever since running into Robert North for the first time all those months prior, the questions running in her mind were relentless. But that morning back in her bedroom, the scientist answered one big question that had been on her mind, and it had been presented to her by a small Pikachu…

As she had returned from the door after ordering her breakfast, she found Bucky putting a video tape into her television set. He then pointed at three spots in the room - Over her bed, in a corner near her kitchen, and over by the bathroom. In all three cases, she saw a spark erupt from the ceiling. She looked closely at the one near the bathroom, and what she found infuriated her.

There was a small camera smoked slightly hanging from what she thought had been a sprinkler head for the fire extinguishers. "Those voyeurs!" she yelled. "I'll KILL them!"

"The following is a classified video document," she heard the tape start in a woman's voice.

Voyeurs be damned! Shadow heard the words 'classified video document!' She came around to her bed and looked at her television. A woman in a strange uniform was talking. She didn't recognize the outfit, but it looked a bit military. "This report to the Stratus League and the Golden R is as a follow up to the proposed joint venture with the up-coming conflicts that will be soon upon the dimensions of the Pokémon..."

"..._Dimensions_ of the Pokémon?" Shadow said to herself. "Dimensions! This person's talking about different dimensions!" Shadow had been in this world for so long, she had become accustomed to the look of things. This lady she had frozen on her screen with the remote button... even she didn't look like she was from this world. She looked... she looked more like Robert North, who never really looked like HE belonged there either... Shadow shook her head and unfroze the tape.

"The date was 60 years ago, Prime Level. The place, Cape Goddard Space Center, along the Florida coast. This was Mission: Daedalus Gate..."

Shadow watched as the tape switched from one view, a clean video-type view of a massive rocket on a launch pad, to a grainy film with horrible musical background... ugh... a government film!

"This film is property of the Department of State Security and Safety," a voice said, but that wasn't what had Shadow's attention. It was the words being superimposed over the grainy image of the same rocket she had been shown a few seconds earlier.

"OPERATION: TEAM ROCKET - FINAL REPORT ON THE FAILURE OF THE DAEDALUS GATE MISSION," was scrawled across the screen. There was a knocking on the door, and she froze the picture again.

"Come..." she said. The door opened, and Derek entered holding a tray of breakfast goodies. Her friend and landlord Sforzie followed.

"Shadsie! Oh, it's good to see you awake again!" Sforzie said, giving her a hug, and hitting the sore spot on her shoulder.

"Oh, there you are!" she added, looking at the tiny Pikachu sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Squeak!"

Sforzie looked at it a bit puzzled. "Cute... That's the first time I heard it say anything..."

Shadow looked at Bucky. "You've seen him before?"

"He came with me, ma'am," Derek said, placing the tray on a stand and rolling it over to the bed. "Don't expect much other than that squeak... he's a mute. He spent the last few nights downstairs at the Café keeping the customers, err, entertained?"

"He would sit behind the counter of the bar, between the pictures of Jesse and James," Sforzie said, a touch sadly.

Sforzie had set up a small memorial to their lost friends at one end of the bar in the Café. By that time, it had been roughly six months since James' death in what had been ruled as an accident. But the results were still being felt through Team Rocket. Shadow had been on a mission when James had been killed. She remembered the recall notice - it almost seemed frantic, and had been personally written by Giovanni. She remembered how the boss seemed to take the news badly, almost as if family had been hurt, injured or killed. A year earlier, when she had heard of Jesse's death, she remembered how Giovanni vanished into his office for a month, refusing to come out or issue orders. But when he finally did emerge, heads rolled.

But, with James' death, Giovanni had her just keep an eye on, of all things, the Ketchum boy. He had been taken into custody by the Jennies that had found the accident scene. At first, he was going to be arrested for the death of James, but after the driver of the lorry explained the circumstances, all charges had been dropped. But... The Twerp... oh, she remembered the explosion when she called him that in front of Giovanni... The Ketchum boy... he had been ruined. The shock of it all had overcome him. To add insult to injury, the Pokémon League had invalidated his badges for recklessly endangering his Pokémon in the final battle with James. True, he had been defending himself to a Rocket, but according to his Dexter's readout, he threw his PokéBalls in the intent to do James harm, not a Pokémon battle - a direct violation of the rules, which was determined to be a factor in the resulting death of James. In other words, James, for once in his life, was in the right.

Ash Ketchum had been disgraced. He would no longer be able to become a Pokémon Master, or be a threat to Team Rocket. His Pikachu was gone, both of his worst enemies had been killed in front of him, and for some reason, his mentor Brock had left his side in an angry shouting match she had witnessed while investigating Jesse's death. Broken, Ash sat alone in a room of the psychiatric wing of the Pallet Hospital for weeks. Shadow had kept a vigil in her shape-shifted Persian form outside the window of his room, high in a tree. She would watch him sit and watch television with a blank expression on his face. He would sometimes pull a pad out of a table and scribble in it, but not much more. Late at night, Shadow would get down from her observation post and report directly to Giovanni.

One day, Shadow found that Ash had been released to the custody of his mother. She entered the hospital, and silently checked out his former quarters.

The attendants were on a break from clearing out his old room. She looked at a waste basket and found the pad that Ash had been scribbling in. She quickly exited the building with it, climbed the tree she had been keeping vigil in then opened the pad.

Page one... a rendering of a Persian... and a note.

"Day 27 - the Persian's back," he had written. "She's been keeping me company for some time now. I like her. She's got beautiful eyes." Shadow remembered shuddering at the thought of Ash Ketchum liking her. That was one thing she wasn't going to tell Giovanni. But as time went on, she remembered how sad she felt for him, his life, his career finished. Even if he was a Twerp, he didn't deserve this.

"Watching cartoons?" Sforzie asked, waking Shadow from her remembrances. She looked over at the TV and saw the tape had switched off, and some strange image of some weird creature was bounding across the screen. Bucky had somehow absconded with the remote, and was switching channels, as well as turning off the secret tape the VCR held.

"Hey you!" Shadow said to the Pikachu, snatching the remote back. Somehow, she knew that the tape wasn't for Sforzie's eyes, and that Bucky had turned it off on purpose. "No, I had just turned it on when you came in," she lied. Sorry Sforzie...

"'You feeling okay?" Sforzie asked.

"A bit sore..." Shadow said as she rotated the shoulder where the shock had been applied.

"Ma'am, did you know about these?" Derek interrupted Shadow. The ladies looked over at the Black Shirt, who was craning his neck at the blackened lens peeking out of the roof over the sink.

"Bucky found them earlier," Shadow said.

"What are they? How'd he get up there?" Sforzie asked.

"They're surveillance cameras," Derek said as he got a closer look at one. "Bucky's trained to seek them out... did you get any microphones Bucky?"

"Squeak!" the much too cute yellow critter said, giving a victory sign.

"Well I sure didn't put them in here!" Sforzie said, more than a bit peeved.

"Umm..." Derek said. "Don't worry, I'll get them out... they're probably Team Rocket Intelligence..."

Sforzie looked at Shadow, then back at Derek. "But, you're Team Rocket..."

Derek tapped his belt buckle. "I'm Golden R, ma'am... a PART of Team Rocket... the part that doesn't like being spied on in such manners as this. Hydron!"

"Por - por!" his Vaporeon said.

"...Bucky, you and Hydron look around for cameras and mics..." Derek finished.

"Squeak!" Bucky said, jumping off the bed. Shadow watched him go. The funny thing to her was that when he reached the doorway, and saw that Sforzie wasn't watching, he took off flying again.

"Well, I'll let you get back to your breakfast," Sforzie said. "I'm glad to have you back, kid." She stood up from the bed, pointed to Derek, and said "YOU!" She exited the room with a beckoning finger. Derek rolled the cart up to Shadow then followed Sforzie. As the door shut, Shadow could hear Sforzie chewing on poor Derek's ear about cameras and microphones, and Derek trying to explain that they weren't his! Shadow sighed and turned the tape back on, grabbing a piece of toast.

"2 years ago, after confirming Professor Nanomi Sakaki's discovery of the Daedalus Gate, and the possible dangers that this energy field may pose to life on this planet as we know it, the government granted the Professor and her husband, Doctor Hikiru Sakaki, the noted biologist, geneticist and Pokéologist, permission to create a mission to investigate this phenomenon. Thus, Team Rocket was formed," the badly dubbed government film droned. "Using plans designed by the Professor, the spaceship Icarus-1 was constructed..."

"Team Rocket," the lady's voice returned. "In its early form was created as a secret government agency. Its mission, to determine if an energy barrier, code named the Daedalus Gate, that this world passes by every 50 years, would be a hazard to them in the near future. Its leaders, Doctors Hikiru and Nanomi Sakaki, formed the group to build and fly their self designed space craft, Icarus-1, to the gate. To this, they formed three sub-groups to Team Rocket.

"Group 1, the scientists and designers, code named Stratus... The team responsible for the creation of the Icarus-1, and the equipment needed for the mission.

"Group 2, the engineers and builders, code named Golden. This was the team set up to actually build and fly the ship.

"And finally, Group 3, the flight crews, team members and security for the mission, code named Rockets.

"After a thorough history scan," the woman said, as she reappeared on the screen, "the following is a synopsis compiled by Starships Forrestal and Exeter and the Observer's Corps..."

"Starships... did she say Starships?" Shadow said, nearly dropping her toast.

"We have determined that the Sakakis were not to blame for the resulting explosions that killed the crew of Icarus-1 and the nearby town of Coral Bluffs in a nuclear explosion. Sensors first showed us that the ship was flight worthy, even with the prototype nuclear engine. A thorough inspection by an Observer's crew confirms this as well. If launch had occurred, the ship would have completed its mission... data test show this...

"With this conclusion, we began a backtracking from the actual event that lead up to the explosion, using time sampling retrieval on the scanning discs. What we found was a case of sabotage and a government cover-up."

"Ooooh! A government cover-up! This is my kind of story!" Shadow said, taking the lid off the breakfast. Scrambled eggs... eh... She took a forkful and ate it. She then looked at the eggs again while pausing the tape.

Ever since she arrived on the PokéWorld, subtle things always kept cropping up that reminded her that she wasn't home. Food was one of them. Where they found eggs to scramble in a world without chickens? She never knew. PokéWorld eggs were an off yellow, almost buff white when scrambled. They tasted... nasty.

These before her... they were yellow, fluffy... real... real chicken eggs... the bacon was real too, just like her mother would make Sunday mornings... the milk... the milk had come from a cow... she could taste it.

Then she found the note... "Bon appetite - North," it read.

This North fellow... he is one after my... what is he after?

"Oh well... breakfast and a film... why not?" she said, continuing the tape and her meal.

"This is Lieutenant General Jackson Powell McGregor, 3rd Air Force - Twice decorated a war hero, and an extreme patriot. We have found that it was his involvement that caused the destruction of Icarus-1, and that the government knew it. But they placed the blame solely on the Sakakis.

"Research found that the General had blamed the Sakaki's operation for the cancellation and delays of Air Force projects under his command. In actuality, only one project could be attributed to the Sakakis', and that was a simple delay. What really seems to have occurred with the General's projects was the General himself. As a field commander he was extremely competent. But as a desk General, McGregor was less than capable. Our psychologists tell us that he probably fell back on blaming anyone but himself for the failures."

Shadow smiled. "Sounds familiar," she said to herself.

"At approximately T-Minus-4 hours prior to launch, by the orders of the General, an automatic cable laying project was resumed, even though it was suppose to wait until after the launch of he rocket. Since the General was the commander of the Goddard Space Center, he did not require the Sakaki's permission to proceed with the operation. It seemed that this was normal anyway, as the General would do things in indifference to the Daedalus Gate mission on a regular basis. To the flight staff, this just seemed like yet another of his ignorant gestures towards the Sakakis. They ignored him as usual.

"Hikiru Sakaki was to remain with the flight controllers at the Group 3 flight center in Celadon. Nanomi Sakaki was the leader of the flight crew, and was aboard Icarus-1.

"At T-Minus-2 hours, 19 minutes, 45 seconds, a directive and new orders was sent to the computers running the cable operation using the General's command codes. The orders redirected a cable mole, a device used for laying cables underground, sending it at the rocket, rather than around it.

"Whether the General knew about what his little plan was going to do is still a mystery. But he remained at the base.

"The launch complex was designed for the rocket to rest in a cradle, with its lower section below ground. At T-Minus-2 minutes, the cable mole struck the outer wall of the launch complex, just above engine number three. Scanners show that the base sensors failed to read this breech because they had been rendered inert by the vibrations of the ship's own MPU and APU units. Internal cameras were also unable to see this event, as steam from the liquid oxygen had filled the area, and had blinded them.

"At T-Minus-10 seconds, the cable mole completed the bore, and ejected itself into the launch complex. It struck the third engine, puncturing the outer cooling tubes that surrounded the engine's bell-shaped exhaust cone. At this time, it was common practice to wrap an engine bell with tubing that lead from the liquid oxygen tanks. The cooling chill caused by the wrapped engine bell would keep the engine from melting while in flight. Five second prior to flight, the cable mole had punched a hole through the engine, and had stretched a cable through the hole like a thread through a needle. Raw liquid oxygen poured from the hole into the bell just as the ignition sparkers fired.

"At T-Plus-10 seconds, all three engines had burst into disarray. The forth center engine, the nuclear drive that wasn't to fire until in orbit, snapped in half by the torque exerted on it by the one working engine, the partly working second engine, and the destroyed third engine. Abort commands were sent to all stations and controls, but it was much too late. A core breech occurred, and the explosion went nuclear."

Shadow's eyes were glued to the screen as the destruction was shown from positions she thought would have been impossible to see from, especially the high sky view that backed up as the ship disappeared within a mushroom cloud.

"As a result of the explosion, casualty counts were as follows... all 30 crew members of the Icarus-1, including Nanomi Sakaki, 500 ground support team members, 1200 other base personnel, and 110,000 people within the surrounding area of what became approximately a 10 megaton nuclear explosion. The resulting firestorm destroyed a 10 mile area.

"Government reaction was quick, swift and wrongly directed. Remote computer data clearly shows that the commands to the cable mole and the resulting concealing of what the mole was doing came from the General. But upper brass knew that a decorated war hero wasn't going to be blamed for this disaster. All blame was put on the Sakakis and their crews. Team Rocket was to be dishonored and stripped."

"Wow..." Shadow said with a donut in her hand. She watched as a news report was inserted into the playback.

"We feel that the actions of the Sakakis and their Team Rocket were reprehensible and outright criminal," a large gruff suited man said to a microphone as he was walking down some stairs. "They violated almost every sensible rule by even constructing that rocket."

"Senator, the Sakakis are world renowned," a reporter asked the man, "what with their first successful project for the government nearly a half century ago, why blame them alone? Isn't there more than just a mere rocket explosion that we're dealing with?"

The senator stopped and looked at the man with the microphone. "The fact is they purposefully built a rocket with a nuclear motor in VIOLATION of the laws, and tried to hide it under the ruse of a simple multi-satellite rocket launching. They... _**HE**_ will be brought to justice!"

"Senator, why haven't they brought in Hikiru Sakaki yet?" another reporter asked.

The senator glanced at the reporter. "No comment..." he said, and jumped into awaiting limo.

The picture switched to a garbled and slightly scrambled image of an old man sitting behind a desk, a picture of Nanomi Sakaki behind him. He looked drawn and tired, but still showed a veil of determination.

"People of the world... I am Hikiru Sakaki, leader of Team Rocket. We, the members of Team Rocket, wish to apologize for the accident that took so many of our fellow citizens. We wish that circumstances had been different, and that we would be currently announcing a successful flight of Icarus-1. But as the resulting disaster has shown, we are here only to morn loved ones and our losses. I am sorry.

"But..."

"This message was broadcast over a small transmitter in six cities," came a voice over of the lady from before, as Hikiru's image froze, "and this is as far as it got before the government scrambled the picture. But some people still managed to hear it, as the audio continued on without picture in some places."

"But," a scratchy radio sounding Hikiru said, "we are being blamed for a fault that was not ours. We have proof that a General of the Air Force purposefully destroyed Icarus-1 by driving machinery into it as it attempted a launch. The fact that our government KNOWS this leaves me to great distress. And the government insisted on our using the nuclear engine. They also insisted on the satellite launching cover story to hide the real facts about our mission. But they insisted on following these accusations, blaming Team Rocket, my late wife, and I for the crimes of one of their own, and the TRUE saboteur of this mission. Until we can clear our names, Team Rocket must go underground. But we will remain loyal and true to our motto - Protect the world from Devastation - For the betterment of Humans and Pokémon alike."

The video switched to a news broadcast.

"Tonight, reactions to the Team Rocket broadcast heard last night in some cities along the east coast... With the revelation of possible sabotage being the real culprit here, new questions have arisen from the destruction of the Goddard Space Center - Government intervention, possibly to the point of a cover up? We asked these questions today - we take you to the Capitol..."

The view cut to a shot of the Senator that had been on earlier as he stood behind a podium, mics of all shaped sticking up at him. "We all heard the message that Hikiru Sakaki broadcast last night. I am here today to reiterate our original message. Team Rocket is a threat to society, and will be punished. To this end, Doctor, we will hunt you and your organization down. The military knows your locations, your bases, your laboratories. If you do not surrender peacefully, we will be forced to take drastic action. YOU have been warned Doctor Sakaki. The responsibility is now on YOU."

"Senator," a reporter yelled up at the podium, "Doctor Sakaki mentioned something about 'the real facts about our mission' - can you tell us just what that mission was supposed to have been?"

The senator looked down at the questioner with a hateful look. "No." Which seemed to be all he was going to say at first, until he finally said, "we are to understand that the mission was suppose to be under the control of the Sakakis, and only THEY truly knew what it was. Rest assured, we will find out just what they were up to..."

"As the weeks passed, raiding parties were made against the former Team Rocket bases scattered across the country," the lady in the uniform said again from the tape, with highlights of what she described showing behind her commentary. "Though some small elements were found, much of what made up Team Rocket vanished before the government officials."

"Good for them," Shadow said, watching the government goons busting doors to empty rooms.

"The only time the government officials came close was during the incident of 0020.74 involving the Stratus group. This, of course, is a Class One Official Secret. No information may be divulged to anyone with lower than a Class C1A authorization."

"Nuts!" Shadow mumbled.

"As time passed, the underground groups of Team Rocket re-invented themselves. Group One, the Stratus, was reborn after help from an outside source. It currently resides as the Stratus League, an inter-dimensional Pokémon League that follows the former Team Rocket sub-motto, 'For the betterment of Humans and Pokémon' - This group completely broke away from Team Rocket, and shows no signs of it's origins, making it safe from retributions, if any could be brought against them.

"Group Two, the Golden, became the most loyal of the groups to Team Rocket, the Golden R. They became the creative special operations group of Team Rocket. They followed the full motto, the only group of the three to do so. Plus, they have their own motto, 'Do the Dangerous, and Rule the Day' - a motto this group follows to the letter, as they are the division sent in on extreme missions where hazards require special equipment, special response, or special knowledge.

"Doctor Sakaki saw a need for the Golden R to have one further mission. To keep Team Rocket following his original path he had intended. He had the foresight to see that some of the younger members he was leading would be bitter of their treatment, and he had only to look at home to see this.

"He saw in his son a possible problem. Hijishima Sakaki, the doctor's only son, and another brilliant scientist, would, one day, lead Team Rocket. He was bitter for the government's handling of the whole affair, and especially the way they treated his mother's memory. While his father sought to clear Team Rocket's name, Hijishima sought revenge.

"So, Doctor Sakaki formed the Team Rocket Board of Governors, with the power to make rules and regulations that the leader of Team Rocket must follow. Then, in the first meeting, with his select board, of which he came as the leader, not the Chairperson, he put forth and had passed the charter of Team Rocket. It officially formed the three original segments to Team Rocket, and made the Golden R responsible for the care and maintenance of Team Rocket's charter and convictions. To keep the Golden R safe from any hidden agenda, the leader of the Golden R would be kept a secret from all except for those who needed to know. Above all, the leader of Team Rocket, later known as "the Boss," was NOT to know the true leader of the Golden R."

"Soon after, Hikiru Sakaki died of a heart attack. Hijishima Sakaki immediately took Team Rocket on his own course, with revenge the priority. He found that the Board of Governors could be manipulated easily to his own ambitions, though on the subject of the Golden R, they were adamant that he follow his father's wishes. It was at this point, that Hijishima started reforming the third group into his own personal force of revenge-driven thugs, the Rockets.

"Where Hikiru's background, expansive as it was, was mostly in biology and genetics, his son's specialty was Pokémon genetics. At this point, Team Rocket began their relentless pursuit for Pokémon, rare, exceptionally well bread, or specially enhanced. The new Team Rocket was out to acquire all valuable Pokémon it could. Once obtained, the Pokémon would be trained further, or, if found to be unique, used as breeding stock or cloning fodder."

Shadow grabbed her knees. A shudder ran through her soul. Her own memories of such experiments done on herself made watching the video at this point hard. Though, she had to wonder just how this film had been shot, since the subjects acted as if no camera had been present. The views themselves seemed to whirl about, from angles and vantage points most cameras would have had a hard time obtaining, lest the cameraman bump the subject out of the frame. It was truly an odd, if not surreal sight.

"A few years after taking control of Team Rocket, Hijishima had managed to alter the main group's outlook, and started its current direction that the core group follows to this day. But it wasn't until his son took over that Team Rocket truly became a criminal organization of international power. Again, it was a difference between father and son that created this change.

"Soon after taking over the organization from Hikiru Sakaki, his son had taken a vacation in Italy. While there, he fell for the daughter of an Italian Mafioso magnate, Maria Gigliotti. They married soon after. A year later, Kinjai Giovanni Sakaki was born."

"Eww... I guess he didn't fall from a beaker," Shadow commented to herself.

"When Kinjai was 10 years old, his parents divorced. The separation kept the young Sakaki in Italy for many years, living within the confines of his grandfather's Roman villa. But, while he filled his life with many articles of historic Roman life, he still had his father's yearning for all things Pokémon. Denied the chance to travel and become a Pokémon Master as other children his age had done, he sought other means to learn about them. The little creatures intrigued him, as did the workings of his Grandfather's organization, of which, even at such a young age, he had garnered a working understanding of. He devised plans for an organization that could dominate the world, using Pokémon as the means to obtain his ultimate goals. But, his grandfather's organization wasn't the way. At age 15, Kinjai returned to his father's side in Team Rocket.

"His father knew that Kinjai would follow himself as the 'boss' of Team Rocket. And, like his own father before him, knew his son had different priorities. While Hijishima had revenge on his plans, Kinjai was more ambitious. He wanted world domination, by whatever means possible. This was definitely more than the 'boss' had planned. But he had other problems as well.

"Over the years, many of his planned retaliations would fall into disarray. It was as if something, or someone, had been purposefully interfering with his operations. Not one rival blamed for the disgrace of Team Rocket had been 'taken out' as he would put it. They always seemed to just get away. To him, there was only one group capable of knowing and preventing his plans - The Golden R.

"On a cold winter's night 20 years ago, Hijishima began a purge of the Golden R from Team Rocket. He had set up a group based in his ex-father-in-law's organization, which he called "Terminal Solutions." This team used specially trained Pokémon and was his personal hit squad. The TS was sent off to systematically remove the Golden R from Team Rocket. Since the Board of Governors knew nothing about the TS, the losses to the Golden R seemed to them to be a set of accidents - a coincidence... The leader of the Golden R knew otherwise. And he retaliated.

"In the first ever call for an emergency Board Meeting, the Golden R summoned Hijishima to the floor for punishment. Much to the Boss' surprise, the Golden R presented overwhelming evidence, including the entire itinerary of the TS before the board. The last evidence presented was the proof of Hijishima's own termination orders of his father's own cryogenics research project, which killed all but one of the paired Golden R operatives. For this, Hijishima's powers for his remaining years as Boss of Team Rocket would be greatly reduced. They could not remove him, but he would become merely a figurehead. This had been the first time two of the founding groups that had formed Team Rocket worked against the third. It would not be the last.

"Where his forebears were scientists and engineers, Kinjai Giovanni Sakaki learned business. He knew that if Team Rocket was to become a dominate force in the world the first thing it would require would be capital. To this end, he formed an alliance with a rich southern couple, or at least, that was their cover. The Rochester family had their own odd roots in the underworld. They had dropped their ancestor's names, Kojiro, and had taken on the persona of a great southern family. They had made their money in computer software, having one of the hottest operating systems - the Rogue Rocket - on the market. They were all too eager to help out the young Sakaki. He followed their lead, and dropped his own damaged family name, in lieu of just Giovanni, though on special occasions, he'd use his grandfather's name along with his, Giovanni Gigliotti. (Ed. Note: pronounced jih - lot - ee .)

"Hijishima Sakaki was found drowned three months after his demotion before the board. Though his death has been ruled accidental, our history scans show that he was done in by agents of the TS. We know that this group is now under the command of Kinjai Giovanni, and that he has a number of 'standing orders' for them that deal specifically with the Golden R.

"As he took command of Team Rocket, Giovanni actually shut most operations down. His reasons were simple. Low activity would lull the world into a sense that Team Rocket had finally vanished, and that the low output was good at keeping expenses down as he set up his next plan.

"With his next move and the backing of the Rochesters/Kojiros, Giovanni purchased a struggling 100 year old department store chain called Silph's. First, he changed their look from a department store chain to a discount store, closing badly located stores, and opening new, bright, mall driven ones. Then he took some of his acquired Team Rocket technology and made it available to the public at discount prices. Silph Company had the exclusive rights for their own line of PokéBalls that no one could match. No one had ever seen a MasterBall or a HyperBall prior to the Silph's own. The Silph Scope was another hot seller. And when the Silph store chain became the sole provider of discounted copies of Rouge Rocket software, the chain became the powerhouse of the discount store business. The company has expanded in the more resent years, creating theme parks, entertainment venues, sports teams, and a chain of fast food outlets. They even purchased a brewery recently... We still haven't found out why...

"15 years ago, the Silph Company built a massive new Romanesque headquarters outside of Celadon City. Though, to the outside world, this is a massive corporate headquarters, the building is twice the size underground as it is above ground. This secret underground section is Team Rocket Headquarters. From here, Giovanni re-launched the main forces of Team Rocket upon the world. While he played the cover of a playboy entrepreneur, he released Team Rocket upon the countryside, as they returned to their ways of stealing Pokémon. He brought in many scientists and engineers to restart many of his Father's and Grandparent's experiments. He is even considering a trip to the Daedalus Gate. To this date, he is still only considering this."

The tape faded. Shadowcat sat back in her bed. This video told her more in fifteen minutes than she had been able to scrounge in FIVE YEARS! It was dynamite!

"Squeak!"

Shadow jumped. Bucky was sitting next to her on the bed.

"How did YOU get in here?" she asked the yellow vermin, noticing that the door was still shut. He bounced over the mattress to his PokéBall, and pulled another note from it. He handed it to her. It was one of those weird greeting cards with 4 animated pictures that showed North doing some odd hand movements.

"Hello Shadowcat," the card said in North's voice. "As you've been given this card, it would mean Bucky has shown you the history video, and you're probably asking yourself why? Well, I do have my reasons, and I trust you above all to be discrete. Since this is a greeting card, please consider this also an invitation. Could you please come to Tech Lab One as soon as you feel up to it? I need to ask a favor of you, and I'm sure that you're full of questions that I can answer. Thanks..."

Shadow whipped the bed sheets off her. Bucky found himself draped in those covers. He scrambled out from under them and watched Shadow hit the showers. He shrugged and removed the tape, and dropped it into the PokéBall. He then tossed the greeting card into the air, and pointed at it. It flared into flames.

Shadow was reaching for the shower's knobs when the fire sprinklers fired. She peered out the bathroom door at Bucky, who was dripping wet, and still pointing up at the ceiling. The smoldering remains of the card had vanished.

"Squeak..."

"You explain to Sforzie!" Shadow said, and went to get a hot shower.

oOo

Characters from Pokémon ©2000, 07 The Pokémon Company/Nintendo/Creatures/GameFreak

"Terminal Solutions" ©2000, 07 Steve Brunton - Used with Permission  
Starships Forrestal, Exeter, Captain Caroline Edwards, The Observers Corps ©2000-03, 05, 07 Denivan Media Services - Used with Permission  
North ©2001-03, 05, 07 The Lugia Project/DMS – Used with Permission  
Shadowcat (Shadsie, Shadow) ©2000-03, 05, 07 S. E. Nordwall - Used with Permission

©2000-03, 05, 07 S. E. Nordwall/R. A. Stott - The Lugia Project II/DMS

Edited 0501.30, 0706.30


	4. Tech Lab One

First Published Summer 2000  
First Published on FFN: 03/23/03  
Original FFN #1280256/4

**A F T E R ¤ C H R O N I C L E S  
Y E A R ¤ O F ¤ T H E ¤ C A T**

**By R. A. Stott**

_Based on characters by S. E. Nordwall and R. A. Stott  
With References to Steve Brunton's "Terminal Solutions"_

**Chapter Four **

**Tech Lab One**

Six months - Shadowcat stood in Tech Lab One waiting for North's final verdict over the device she had thrown disheveled to his table. If she had known what those six prior months would have held for her, would she have continued in this possibly hollow pursuit? North had promised so much. She thought back to the day she had just watched the video that North had provided her with - a history of Team Rocket - and he had requested her presence at the lab, where he would answer her questions - As many as he could at least. But she had so many...

The shower was warm and pleasant, especially on the sore shoulder where the Taser had struck her three days earlier. No matter, it was just fine.

Having a humanoid body covered in fur sometimes was a pain. Granted, in the winter it made for a way to keep warm that couldn't be beat. But in the summer it was hot. And even though she was part cat, Shadow wasn't going to go the total feline way when it came to bathing. She remembered how her own cat would wash itself, and dreaded the thought. So, like any other human, she would shower. But the fur... oh well... drying all that fur... Sigh...

Sforzie had rigged up a contraption with six blow dryers. It worked, when it didn't blow itself over. And when Shadow would turn it on, the lights would dim in her bedroom. She just hoped it wasn't soaked by the fire extinguishers.

She got out of the shower. The fire sprinkler was off and the water gone... that was odd. The dryer seemed okay, and she flicked the wall switch with a well dried hand, and stood in front of the warm air blast.

A few minutes later, and two near collapses of the dryer stands, she wrapped a towel around herself and headed for what she expected was wet messy bedroom. What she found was a perfectly dry room. Even her mattress was dry. This was strange. Then she saw Bucky.

He was still wet. But he was over in one corner of the room, his PokéBall in his paws, floating over a small puddle of water that was being sucked into the orb. He then went over to a sink in the kitchen area and released the water he had collected. It gushed out in a minor torrent - Very odd.

She decided to go in her dress blacks this time. The white uniform stuck out so, and the blacks helped her sneak about better. She took her two PokéBalls and hung them to her belt and headed for the door.

"Squeak!"

Shadow turned to look behind her. Bucky was spin-drying himself. So much for a dry kitchen...

Looking a bit dizzy, he then tripped and stumbled into the strange PokéBall. It slammed shut, and shot across the room to Shadow's hands.

"Coming along, are we?" Shadow said to the PokéBall. She opened the door to her bedroom and saw a wet hallway. She also found Sforzie there about to knock on the door.

"Where IS that imp!?" she howled. "Where is BUCKY!?"

Shadow quickly placed the PokéBall on her belt. "He's around here somewhere... why?"

"Why? WHY!" she shrieked. "LOOK AT THIS PLACE! This'll be the SECOND TIME he set off the fire extinguishers!"

"Really? My room's dry..."

Shadow left Sforzie staring into her room as she headed for the door.

Outside, she found a Team Rocket black Jeep Cherokee waiting for her, Derek at the wheel, his Vaporeon in the back seat.

"The Silph Company, and step on it!" Shadow said, hopping into the passenger seat.

"Yes, ma'am!" he said putting the vehicle in gear and tearing out of the parking lot.

"I take it Bucky set off the fire sprinklers again," the young man behind the wheel said as they left the Cafe behind.

"Sforzie was saying something about that when I left," Shadow said, pulling the special PokéBall off her belt. It refused to shrink, so sitting with it slung there hurt. "What did he do?"

Derek laughed. "He somehow tripped it the first night we were there when he showed everyone how to flip a bottle cap. Sheared two sprinkler heads clean off. If everyone hadn't been so amazed by just that move, welll..."

Shadow examined the PokéBall. It looked odd.

"Ah, is that him?" Derek said, pulling a holder from the dashboard, and pointing at it. Shadow slipped the ball into it, and it popped open. The small Pikachu peeked out from under the lid.

"You've been naughty again, haven't you?"

Shadow looked at Derek. That wasn't him. She looked behind herself.

"Hello," the Vaporeon said to her.

"Y - you can TALK!" she said surprised by the Pokémon's sudden vocabulary.

"Only when HE'S about," Derek said, pointing at the PokéBall and Bucky. "He's our special little Pokémon."

"Squeak..." he said.

"That's easy for you to say..." the Vaporeon said.

They drove along for a short while, riding in silence. Shadowcat watched the scenery roll by, but really she was deep in thought. What was she getting herself into? She looked over at Derek.

"So, you're Golden R?" she asked him.

Derek kept looking forwards, only glancing slightly over at his passenger. "Yes ma'am," he said.

"That must be... different," she said joining him watching the road.

"We're still part of Team Rocket."

She looked over at him. "Yes, but how much of Team Rocket is the Golden R?"

"Ma'am? What do you mean?"

"Values, Mr. Derek, values. Just how close does the Golden R follow Team Rocket values?"

Derek nodded, as if finally understanding the question. "If you mean, does the Golden R do the same things as Team Rocket regulars like stealing Pokémon and such, no. That's not our job with the Rocket."

She nodded, and continued to watch the road. He glanced over again.

"You did watch the video, right?"

She smiled and shook her head. "Yes... it was very... educational. It sounded like the Golden R was a bit... confrontational... with the upper management of Team Rocket..."

The driver smirked. "Considering the treatment given them by 'upper management', can you blame them? Besides, that tape was made by an outside source..."

Shadow looked back at Derek. "Yes... about that... Who was that woman on the tape? She didn't look..."

Derek shook his head. "I'm sorry, ma'am... that would be something you'll have to ask Professor North."

Well, so much for that information... She looked out the side window.

The Silph Building was to their right.

"Aren't we going up there?" she asked.

"Back entrance," Derek said. "You were due to go on a mission, remember? We wouldn't want Security to see you coming in now, would we?"

The Jeep pulled up along the edge of the road beside a bushy sloping hill. Derek pressed a button on his dashboard.

"All security monitors are clear," a computer chirped over the radio. He pressed another button, and a bush beside the road moved aside, followed by a sizable rock. Derek then eased the Jeep into the cave behind the stone, which replaced itself as soon as they were clear.

The tunnel seemed miles long. It stretched off into the hill that made up the Silph Company's grounds. It had side tunnels that lead this way and that. It even had traffic signals, though there wasn't anyone in the tunnels as far as Shadow could see.

"How long has THIS been down here?" Shadow said aloud. She heard Derek laugh.

"It was here before the building was built," he said as they drove on deeper into the complex.

As they traveled, Shadow noticed some closed off sections of the tunnels with signs on the round bulkheads that shut them off. These were names she recognized as labs and offices of Team Rocket's underground headquarters. The last one said 'Commissary'.

"These tunnels," Shadowcat asked, "are they really running behind the headquarters?"

Derek only nodded.

Shadow laughed to herself. "Does the Boss know of them?"

"Some, but not these that we're in now," Derek replied. "These are shielded and hidden from the rest of Team Rocket. Kind of our special escape route, in case Team Rocket needed to abandon ship, so to say..."

"But, if the tunnels are known only to the Golden R, how would Team Rocket be able to use them in an emergency?"

Derek stifled a snicker. "Believe me, when those bulkheads drop, any Team Rocket member that didn't understand what a gaping hole like those would produce was for DESERVES being captured!"

The Jeep turned a corner and headed down a slight slope. It pulled off onto a short landing. Shadow looked down the tunnel.

"How do you keep THIS all a secret?" she said, seeing no end to it all.

"The walls are impregnated with a special metal alloy that prevents even psychic Pokémon from finding them," Derek said as he looked up at the ceiling through the windshield. "A teleport move would reflect away - and it's been tried. The same metal prevents any of Team Rocket's diggers from coming in here as well... It's as safe a hole in the ground as we possibly could make it." He unbuckled himself, and got out of the Jeep. Shadow watched him.

"We're here," he said.

"Squeak!" Bucky added. He climbed out of the PokéBall, closed it and sat on it. Then he and the ball floated out Derek's open door.

"Show off!" the Vaporeon said, climbing out her door.

Shadow quickly released herself from the belt and headed out her door to follow Derek. He was heading for a steel door along the wall they had parked next to. He took a PokéBall from his belt and inserted the beam emitter into a hole in the wall beside the doorframe. He gave it a twist then pushed. Shadow was surprised to see a large round seam form around the door, which slid inwards a few inches. Then he pulled on both the doorknob and PokéBall, and the wall began to swing away. What had looked like a simple steel door, turned out to be a 30" thick bulkhead door, which swung out into the passageway.

More ominous than that to Shadow, was the fact that as soon as the door cleared its entryway, steam started to flow out of it. Lights were flashing and a slight industrial sound has coming from the room on the other side of the wall.

"Ah," Derek said, looking in on the fun going on in the room. "The mad scientist is at it again!" He winked at Shadow then beckoned her to go in. She peeked in, but was startled by Bucky as he casually flew into the steam. The Vaporeon followed. Shadow looked at Derek with a cautious eye.

"You first," she said.

"Sorry, I've got to close the door," he answered, moving to the inside of the massive door, and placing the PokéBall emitter into another hole and twisting. "There's nothing to be nervous about..."

"I'm not nervous," Shadow lied.

"Yes, you are..." Derek said back at her. She gave him a nasty look.

"It's your ears. They're laying flat against your head - The sign of nervousness."

Shadow gave her ears a wishful look. Blasted big cat ears... Can't play a Poker Face with these... Shoot...

Shadow turned to the dark room and entered the steam - which was cold... very cold.

It was a large cavernous room - The ceiling seemed miles away, as did most of the walls. It was probably only the light playing tricks on her she thought. A set of stairs ran up the wall across from her. They were extremely long... They landed at some sort of work station.

But, on the floor of the room was the source of the steam. It was from two pods - A large and small pair which sat at 45º angles to the floor. There was a litany of mechanical and electrical devices streaming into the apparatuses.

"T-Minus-78 days and 6 hours," a computerized voice said, "until event conclusion... all systems nominal... fluid transfers in 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - Mark... Fluid transfers complete... setting refresh containment systems to 6 point 7 - 3 - 0. Cryogenic experiment now entering eighteen thousandth two hundred first day - Subjects respiration nominal."

Shadow looked at the machinery. She came close to the small pod. She found a window to look into.

"A Flareon..." she said, seeing what looked like a sleeping Pokémon within the capsule.

"The legacy of Hikiru Sakaki," a voice said from above. "Welcome, Miss Shadowcat."

She turned around, and looked up. A figure appeared over the edge of the work station high above her. In front of her, a screen flickered to life. The face of Professor North came up.

"I am glad you accepted my invitation. Please, why don't you come up and join me?"

A series of lights illuminated the stairs. Shadow moved towards them.

"Legacy of Hikiru Sakaki? What do you mean? What are these?" she asked, climbing the steps.

"Remember the video? Just over 20 years ago, Hijishima Sakaki attempted to terminate all of his father's Cryogenics experiments. This is the last surviving pair."

Shadow stopped half way up the stairs and looked down on the equipment. She could see the frosted outline of a body in the larger pod.

"What was all that 'T-Minus-stuff?"

North sighed and looked down on the equipment as well. "That experiment is ending soon. That was just my computer telling me the details. In just over seventy-eight day, our travelers from just about fifty years ago will awaken."

Shadow watched the machinery for a moment. Then she saw Bucky beside the larger pod. She could have sworn she saw him come out the side of the unit.

"How's she looking Bucky?" North asked from above.

"Squeak!" he said in response, showing a victory sign.

Shadow continued up the stairs. Below, she could see Derek and his Vaporeon checking some systems, then head out another door on the other side of the room.

She continued to look at the machinery as she ascended the stairs. It was straight out of some science fiction movie. It intrigued her.

She snapped out of her staring walk as she felt her hand touch another hand. She turned and found North holding her free hand and smiling at her.

"I'm glad you came," he said. "Please, come in." He waved over to another massive vault door behind the work station.

Shadow continued to examine where she was as she slowly walked through the second vault door. She left the room of the massive scientific apparatus, and entered a machine shop, or the scientist's equivalent of one. There were bits and pieces all over this second large room, which was obviously above ground again as there were slit windows high near the roof line letting in sun light, or at least a little sun light, as there was so much stuff hung from the ceiling that it was hard to tell what was roof and what was scientific novelty.

To her right was a PokéBall Transfer Unit and scientific test beds. To her left was a wall full of shelves, junked items, and some strange sheet of fabric stretched between two poles that shimmered. In front of her was more work stations, some sort of control board, and a number of crates. Far across the room was a large refrigerator. Sitting on top of the fridge was a Persian, all primped and sitting rather regally - Odd. Then she noticed the paw on the beast.

It was wrapped in a gauze bandage. This was Giovanni's Persian that had been burned the other day in the lab attack!

"Please excuse the clutter," North said, swinging the door shut. "It's a bit of a bachelor's pad in here..."

"Isn't that the Boss'...?"

North looked over at Shadow's pointing finger, and at what it was pointing at.

"Ah... Ziggy... Don't worry about him. He enjoys that refrigerator. It's the only one large enough for a cat his size to get up on... what it is with cats and ice boxes..." North walked over to the Persian.

"Come on... it's time to change your bandage..." he told the cat, turning his back to the refrigerator. Ziggy gave North a slightly disgusted look. He shook his head, and stepped off the box onto his shoulders. The rather interesting balancing act moved over to a table, where North bent down, and let the cat off. Shadow watched a bit amused.

"Sorry... he can't get down on his own right now with that foot..." he said, attending the Persian's paw. "You worked in the Nanomi Zoo, didn't you?"

Shadowcat looked at North with a bit of surprise. The Nanomi, named for Giovanni's Grandmother, was a secret holding zoo for Team Rocket's captured Pokémon. She had been given work there during the times the Boss hadn't had her off on some assignment. She had found that she was a natural as a Keeper, but few had known that she had been there as she had worked mostly in the background. She hadn't enjoyed the times when children would think she was one of the exhibits, and some of her fellow Rockets would add to the insult by egging then on. Fortunately, the head keeper was aware of her talents, and would quickly put a stop to the horseplay. Maybe it was her cat form, but Pokémon calmed quicker with her around. They seemed to trust her more than the others. Then again, the others were more inclined to get whips and cattle-prods to handle tense situations.

"Could you start taking this off, while I get his stuff?" North asked, heading over to a cabinet next to the refrigerator. Shadow cocked her head with a 'why not' look, and attended the paw. She removed a pair of metal clips holding the end of the wrap...

THUD!

All went black for a moment. When Shadow opened her eyes again, she saw the face of Ziggy at extreme close range, purring loudly. He was rubbing his forehead against hers with a simple smile running across his face.

"Ziggy! What are you trying to do? Give her a concussion? That jewel on you forehead isn't soft you know!"

"Meowrrrl, sorry North..." he said. Shadow looked at him with a bit of shock then remembered the way the Vaporeon spoke earlier. She looked over at North, and saw him giving the cat an odd look.

"He's not supposed to speak?" she asked North.

"No, he can speak... I just didn't expect him to do so NOW!"

"I thought... the Pikachu..."

North looked at her then covered his face with his hand. "Hydron spoke while near Bucky?" Shadow nodded.

"Things are going a bit too fast?" Ziggy asked. North glared at him.

"I had asked Shadow to come here so I could answer some of HER questions, and she could answer some of MINE, not ADD TO THEM!" the scientist grumbled.

Shadow stood back, watching the bickering. It was a bit much, and she was beginning to doubt the reasons for coming. She watched North put his hands up in a 'clam down' move.

"Okay... let's try this again..." he said, placing a tray of medical supplies down in front of the cat. Shadow, even though cautious worry ran through her, returned to unwrapping the paw. She found that cat's head against hers again. She laughed.

North ran another of those odd rods over the paw that Bucky had waved in front of her earlier. "What is that?" she asked the scientist.

"This is a scanning rod," he said, reading a small box that was attached to it by a cord. "Well, fuzzball, you won't need the bandages after this treatment." North took another odd device and illuminated the stubby fur of the burnt paw. Shadow watched the fur return to a normal look.

"Humm," North said looking over at her. "Let's see that shoulder..." he said. Before she could say anything, he had run the same device over where the Taser had shot her the other day. The pain instantly vanished.

"Better?"

She rubbed her shoulder, silently nodding at him. He smiled, and returned the device to its holder. "Wound healer," he noted as he returned the tray of goodies to the cabinet. "Never leave home without one!"

Her emotions finally boiled over. "North... who are you?" she asked.

He closed the cabinet. "Depends on who you ask," he said as he held the door shut with his hand. "Some here call me the Gadget Guru... some call me 'That wacko down in Tech Lab One.'" He laughed. He looked over at her, a slightly sad look on his face and smiled at her.

"Personally, I would wish you would consider me a friend... and fellow traveler, Stacey..."

Her own name... she hadn't heard her own name since... ever since Giovanni had found her five years ago... She stepped back, taking a defensive stance.

"Who ARE you..." she hissed as she bared her claws.

He leaned on his workbench and fiddled with his glasses with a cloth rag. "My name is Robert North, and like you, I am a writer and artist from Earth - _OUR_ Earth... not this PokéWorld – I am just like you."

Shadow cocked her head. "What? What are you talking about? What, do you mean you're…"

"Oh, I can prove I'm from your world..." he said. He looked at some sawdust covering a section of the table. He reached down and wrote something with his finger in the dust. He then turned and pointed at a box across the room from them. It instantly squished down into a little ball.

"I believe this is what you tried to do the other day?" he said.

Shadow looked at what North had written. She saw "CONSTRICT" written in the dust. She then looked at the box, and how he had squished it into a little ball of tin, much like she had wanted to the other day in the Slice and Dice lab when Jessebelle had attacked them.

"But... but I thought... the aliens..." she stammered. "I thought I was given these powers when I was abducted… by the aliens…"

North shook his head. "Nope... not the 'aliens'... 'Memory Alter' as you call it would come naturally to people from our Earth if they were to come here. Think about it... Where did we come from? We are IN a world of Pocket Monsters, or Pokémon, correct?"

"Okay," she cautiously answered as she tried to comprehend what he was stating. She was still in a defensive posture, but not as hard as before.

"And exactly what were Pokémon back home? We CAME from a world where all of this is just a game, a story and a television show..."

Shadow's eyes flew wide. The memory... she had forgotten about where she had first seen and heard of Pokémon. She then heard a 'ding' and looked down at a device North was handing her.

"Remember this?" he asked her. "They don't have these here, do they?"

It was kiwi-colored.

"Oh my god, it's a GameBoy... I had a grape one..." she said as she dropped her stance and took the device. She turned it over - Pokémon Yellow was in it.

"It would probably blow everyone's minds if they saw that thing," the Professor said with a laugh. "I'm surprised though, that you need to write what you want..."

Shadow looked at him, confused. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"Your 'Reality Alter' attack… you see it's our creative minds that allow us to do what we do," he said, tapping his head. He held his hand out flat. An apple appeared. "Simply think about it... try it..."

Shadow looked at the apple. She held out her hand, and thought. An apple appeared, though it looked a bit odd - Slightly collage-like.

"Ah... an abstract artist..." he said as he pulled out his scanner to check it. "Nice... 'Hope its edible..." He looked at the readings and tapped the box attached to the rod. "Different... it's edible, though you'd probably find it tastes like... a banana?"

Shadow shook her head. "How did we get here then? Why am I a cat-person?"

North shook his head, while taking a bite from his apple. "Well, I know how I came here... a dimensional portal was opened by a massive explosion within the trans-dimensional zone of sub-space. I drove my car right into it. It dropped me here twenty years ago." He sat down and looked at her.

"But YOU..." he said, pointing at Shadow, "you're a mystery. We know it has something to do with the Daedalus Gate..."

Shadow remembered the tape. "The Daedalus Gate? - err, WE?"

North nodded. "I guess the whole story is needed." He reached over to his console behind Ziggy and punched a switch. A bank of monitors rolled out of the wall.

"Computer, seal the room please... no visitors..." he said to no one she could see.

"Acknowledged," a voice said. A series of clunks and thuds rumbled through the room.

North moved to the front of his console and threw a few more switches. The monitor bank opened further, revealing a single large screen to one side. A picture appeared on it of an auto accident.

The scientist gestured towards the screen. "What had happen twenty years ago was when I got zapped through the barrier, the road I was on became a section of the Viridian Forest. Forty-five miles per hour isn't something I would recommend to anyone in a road-less tree filled forest. And I was driving my classic old '67 Chevy, which only had a lap belt. I collapsed the steering wheel nicely."

"It's amazing that you survived it," Shadow said, watching the monitor.

"That's for sure," he said. "But I was also fortunate by another quirk of fate. I arrived on the night Hijishima Sakaki started to send the TS out to purge the Golden R from Team Rocket. A nearby base 'somehow' had exploded. The survivors of the 'accident' were moving to a new location when the event that brought me here happened. They managed to get me away and to their new base in time, obviously... as I'm still quite here..."

"Are you sure?" Ziggy interjected. North scowled at him.

"As I recovered, I found that I had entered this strange looking world. I'm sure you noticed it too, how things look... different..."

"Cartoony?" Shadow suggested.

North nodded. "Exactly... Anime actually... proves a theory I always had too..."

"And that was?" Shadow asked, leaning on a hand as she sat down beside North on a stool.

"That to every story, vision, idea that has been put to paper, film, or just into one's mind, there's a world where it's actually happening somewhere. It's a weird theory, and considering the things that have been thought out over the millennia, there would be some real strange worlds indeed - but the discovery of the dimensional levels has proven much of it true."

Shadow looked at North confused. "Dimensional levels?" she asked.

North nodded. "They were once called alternate dimensions... mirror universes. An alternate reality to the one we knew. But it was discovered that they are vastly larger than first thought, and much more diverse."

North pulled a pile of books and pamphlets up from under the console and placed them before Shadow. "Consider this stack of stuff as the dimensional levels. They are layered, sandwiched one on top of another, some no thicker than a hair, others wide as a house. They have sub levels, and multiple realities. And they all are interlinked with the flow of time."

He typed a code into the console. The large screen showed a line with the months and years listed. "This is our current Time-Line..." he said. He then keyed a few more things into his console. The image drew back, showing more lines. "...And these are other Time-Lines from other dimensional levels... Here's our level... our Earth."

Shadow stood up, looking at the graphs and lines. She saw the lines move back in time, to when she arrived on this world. Then, as to prove itself, a line was drawn between the higher line and the lower line.

"Is this when I came here?" she asked North.

He nodded. "It gets a bit more interesting... According to your dossier, you said that you arrived here when the aliens' ship broke a dimensional barrier... right?"

Shadow nodded, and also gave North a slightly nasty look. What was HE doing with HER dossier? North handed her a file.

"Your dossier... you may want to read this later..." he said. "Anyway, when we checked on this," he added, pointing back at the screen, "we found your energy signature entering a void in space. Whether they meant to fly into this void, we're not sure yet."

Shadow shook her head. "We... Who are WE?"

North smiled and lowered his head. "Sorry – By 'we' I mean my fellow scientists and researchers. We make up three separate but interactive groups. The first is of course the Golden R, with whom I deal with here. The second is the Stratus League, of which you should remember from the video I sent you. The third is another group I am affiliated with, the Observer Corps, of which those ships mentioned in the video are with. We have been keeping an eye on you for a while now, sometimes keeping you safe as well..."

"What?" she yelled as she was starting to get that creepy feeling again. She watched the scientist walk about as his picked up some sort of electronic PADD readout and started to page through it.

"Well now, let's see... the last time we helped you waaaas... ah, here it is..." North said, fiddling with some controls on his board. One of the small monitors flickered to life, and Shadow saw herself pop up. The action seemed familiar... hauntingly familiar...

"The Steigler Mission!" she gasped. There she saw herself running for all she was worth with guards and Arcanines in hot pursuit. Her cover had been blown by what had turned out to be a double-agent.

As she ran, one of the guards used a launcher to fire a PokéBall ahead of her. It ejected its contents of a Scyther, which leapt into a tree. Shadow avoided this trap by jumping into another tree nearby. But as she climbed, the Scyther sliced a branch that stretched over to the tree she had launched herself into. The massive branch whipped through the smaller tree, striking Shadow as she scrambled through the limbs. She fell behind the tree as the guards and beast arrived. But as they went around the trunk and removed the large branch, they found nothing.

"I woke up in some bushes..." Shadow said quietly, the memory of the event coming back to her. "I thought I would have broken something..."

"Well, let's back up a bit, and rotate the picture to see just what did happen..." North said, spinning a track-ball and reversing the image. The guards and hounds ran comically backwards, and the branch returned to the tree. Then the view spun around the tree, still in freeze frame. Shadow couldn't believe the imaging she was seeing.

"Okay, at this point, the branch was about to hit you..." he said, advancing the image slowly. "Now, the automatic safety system we set up for your protection was triggered when you get hit HERE..."

Shadow winced in pain, watching herself get walloped by the heavy branch. But then she saw something that made her jaw drop.

As she fell through the branches she dematerialized!

"WHAT!?" she yelled as she stood up in a start. Ziggy jumped at the reaction startled.

"You were transmatted here," North said. "I'll tell you, you do your stuff late at night, don't you! 3:30 in the morning, and I had to make sure you were still breathing!"

"Well, I'm sorry if I put you off!" she said looking over at North.

"Hey, I'm just pulling your tail, kiddo... But I did wait until those thugs were gone before I transmatted you back to that bush you found yourself in."

Shadow watched the screen to see herself reappear in a set of bushes off to the right of the screen. She tromped up to the monitor and started to gesture at the bank of screens.

"How... How did you do that? How did you get these pictures? How?"

Before she could ask any more questions, she found herself trying to catch a flat round disc that North had tossed to her.

"What's this?" she asked as she finally got holed of the metal thing.

"That is how we can see what we saw on the monitors. That is a scanning disc." North picked up another he had stacked beside him and placed it on the console. He then took a scanning rod, twisted the ball-like hand grip end and ran it over the disc.

"And, when you charge them..." he said. The disc vanished. Shadow's eyes widened.

"Where did it go?" she asked, touching the area that it had been and feeling nothing there.

"Oh, it's still there. It's the metal - Dytrillium Alloy. It is a very strange material indeed. It has a highly charged structure that allows it to act like a recording device, or even a transmitter, if you know what you're looking for. And the weirdest part of it all is that it contains no parts - just the metal. And, it is also the hardest known alloy in existence. It can be made only one way... by using a transmat - which is why it is known as a T-metal...

"As for the transmat, well, they've been around this planet for some time now. The PokéBall transfer units are transmat powered. So, it was relatively easy for me to modify my unit to transport non-PokéBall subjects. Including myself... don't think I used you as a guinea pig here... I've had this beastie working for me for some time now."

North switched the large monitor to an even longer time-line chart. "Getting back to the how's and whys to our presence here, your story gets more interesting. As I said, the 'aliens' entered a void here, just outside the Earth's orbit. Why, we're not sure. From the telemetry we acquired, we would say they weren't trying for this warp-hole, or if they were, they entered it badly."

The trajectory of some ship was plotted across the screen. The ship dove into the line that it had shown prior as Shadow's own trip to this world. But it then stopped towards the end of the line.

"At this point, you and I meet up..."

Shadow looked at North. "What?"

"You and I share the same basic reason for being here. And it happens right here," North said, pointing at where the ship stopped. "From what we have scanned and recorded, it looks as if something happened to the ship... they seemed to have dumped their power core for some reason. As it was, it exploded within this corridor of sub-space."

Shadow looked at the screen as it dawned on her. "The explosion in sub-space - Your trip here!"

"Exactly," North said as he moved in front of the large screen as he started to used its graph image to demonstrate what he was describing. "When your ship detonated its core in sub-space, it blew a hole open that traveled back the route the ship had taken and struck the Earth directly in front of my car. Now as for why I wound up 20 years in the past, and you wound up here only 5 years ago is because of the differences that we got here in the first place.

"You were on a ship that had lost all power. Therefore, technically, it would have simply dropped out of sub-space and back into real space. But because it was within the event zones of the void, of which the other end was the Daedalus Gate, and since it was over this planet at the time, this is where you landed.

"I, on the other hand, was a moving target. I entered the tear in sub-space here, dropping me through the Trans-Dimensional Barrier Zone, a route between time, space and dimensional levels. And, since I too was within the event zone of the energy field that your ship created, therefore it had a 'memory' - that is, it mimicked the length of the void you had traveled through, it promptly dropped me onto the same planet it dropped you off on. The only difference was, I went through the TDBZ to get here, thus putting me back in time, while you used the Daedalus Gate, dropping you here practically at the same time you left our Earth and wound up here on the PokéWorld Earth Level Prime."

Shadow watched a line segment off her line, representing North's travels. "Wow..." she said.

"Oddly, it's a good thing it happened when it did. 5 years ago, the Daedalus was overhead this planet. If it had happened today, you would have been ejected into deep space. Also, since your dossier says that you were found by this tree we see here in my photo," he noted as he leaned over at the smaller monitor showing the auto he had been in wrapped around the oak, "appearing at the same time would not have been a good thing for you."

Shadow stared at the screens. "Who were they?" she asked.

North looked at her. "They? You mean the 'aliens' that abducted you? Well, technically, to you they were aliens..."

She looked at North as he punched a few buttons on the board. He pointed at the screen and she saw something she would never forgot.

"Is that what you saw?" North asked, pointing at the large monitor. It showed a glowing disc like ship.

"Oh my..." She looked at North, who was holding his head down, shaking it.

"I will assume that it is..." North said, anger growing in his voice. He punched another switch, and the ship was replaced by a schematic.

'GORT' - the ship was named 'GORT'.

"Right... so now we know what sort of explosion it was... the detonation of an anti-matter core..."

"You... you KNOW this ship?" Shadow asked.

North slammed his fist against the board. Ziggy jumped again, this time moving to the workbench beside them to stay out of North's range. North reached over and spun a dial. The lower corner of the screen enlarged to show the plan specs.

'DESIGNER - ROBERT NORTH' glared over the screen.

"I'm my own grandpa..." North said, reciting a line from an old novelty song. "Well... How about that... responsible for my... OUR being here... If I hadn't built that damn ship, we wouldn't be here."

North found himself in the grasp of a rather angry Shadow. "WHY!?" she snarled. The pain she had endured overwhelmed her as she dug her claws into his shoulders.

Oddly, he only looked at her with no signs of pain on his face. He knew what he had done. It was rather obvious. He dropped his head, and shook it.

"Giovanni..." he said.

She pushed him away - That creep again.

"When I first arrived," North explained, "and once I was brought into the Golden R's influences, the first thing I wanted to do was get back home. I had found that being here in this dimension had increased my technical knowledge, and I found I could design and build all sorts of instruments. Having been told about the Daedalus Gate, I decided that this must have been the reason why I was here. I decided that I would find a way... MAKE a way to investigate this gate. I designed GORT to take a crew to it. But I needed help to build it.

"The Golden R wasn't sure that the design would work, and denied the project. But that was about the time I was introduced to Giovanni... He was about the same age as I was... we soon became good friends..."

"FRIENDS!?" Shadow shouted. She quickly settled down by the glaring look she received from North.

"Mistake number one, okay?" he growled back. "Mistake number two was allowing him to see some of my plans... I had not known about his family's history yet - about his grandmother's attempt to get to the gate - about the government fiasco over Team Rocket... The whole shooting match... at that time I was only interested in getting home. When he saw the plans for GORT, he said he would help build it. He had the backing, the financing... he could do it... so I agreed...

"He set me up in here with Tech Lab One... It took 2 years to build the ship, test the equipment and get a proper power system working... nearly blew up the planet doing it too... 'Was the only time I've had to eject something into outer space - But we got GORT built and working...

"On the night of the first trial run, I was in here, preparing for my second ride of a lifetime... Giovanni and I were to fly out to the mid-ocean base that GORT had been assembled at. But before the flight, I had some prep work to do, so I was working here. I had visitors that night. A very unique pair of visitors..."

_"Professor North?"_

"I looked behind myself. He was a strange creature. I had become accustomed to the appearance of Pokémon, but this obviously wasn't one of them. He stood only 4 to 5 feet tall, and had the most remarkable head. He wore a uniform I had never seen before, and had no signs of an 'R' anywhere on it, red or gold."

_"Professor, my name is Elb Kinza. I am here today representing the Stratus League of Pokémon Trainers and Breeders. I bring you greetings and warnings..."_

"He seemed sincere in what he told me, even though my younger head didn't believe most of it. He spoke of treachery and deceit by Giovanni. At first, I didn't believe him. I had been told by friends in the Golden R not to trust Gio any further than I could throw him... I didn't believe them either. But when Kinza brought out his travel partner... well, I had a hard time not listening then.

"His companion was me. Older, graying on the temples, a bit weather-beaten - come to think about it, probably close to my age now, since I haven't gone back to see myself yet..."

"And you DIDN'T TELL YOURSELF about the FUTURE!?" Shadow yelped as she was taken aback by the possible lost opportunity.

North shook his head. "Temporal physics would have prevented that. Besides, the moment I saw my older self, I knew there was trouble with the ship. If my plan had worked, I would be home... Why else would I see an older self if it hadn't worked?"

Shadow thought about it for a moment. That was true... She looked at the ship up on the screen again. It was displaying schematics of sections of the ship as the scientist continued.

_"Well now,"_ I told myself, _"I didn't expect to see you..."_

_"Well, sorry to say, I was..." _my older self told me. _"As you probably surmised by seeing me, you realize that you aren't going on that ship. I suggest that you take a 'go with the flow' attitude with Team Rocket and Giovanni... otherwise, you'll never survive."_

Shadow looked at North. "You told yourself THAT?"

North cocked his head, and gave a wry smile. "Believe me, when you get a message like that from YOURSELF, it wakes you up." He laughed slightly. But he did tell more...

_"I suggest you remain with the Golden R... secretly... And when confronted with Giovanni's requests, give him what he wants, but in a non-destructive or harmful way... the operative word is placate... Keep him happy._

_"Keep a watch on your fellow scientists here in Team Rocket Headquarters. Some of their experiments would be considered unethical, to say the least. Help those, again secretly, that you can. Use your resources. They will be your foundation, your anchor. And one day, you will be rewarded."_

"Rewarded?" Shadow asked. "A bit presumptuous, don't you think?"

North laughed slightly. "I always did lean towards the dramatic in my writings... I told him that it sounded like he was putting me into a nasty position - The Lone Scientist off to do noble deeds in the name of the Golden R."

_"Possibly,"_ he told me,_ "but you are not alone."_

North reached over, and placed a hand on top of Shadow's.

"He said," North continued_, "one day you will find someone from home. Help her, as you must help all those who the Team Rocket scientists harm as well."_

Shadow looked at the hand on hers. He sat back, removing his hand, and returned to his story.

"Soon after they left, Giovanni arrived with news of a disaster. Somehow, the ship had taken off. A build up of energy in the power units somehow caused the ship to vanish. This I knew was a lie... and this is why..."

North reached down and pulled a box out from under the workbench. It was orange, with the words "AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY - DO NOT OPEN" stenciled across the top.

"This is GORT's flight data recorder... or at least the flight data recorder that was supposed to go into GORT. I designed it that without this in place, GORT would not work - would not 'build up power' as Gio had said - would not leave without me."

"But GORT did leave without you..." Shadow said.

North nodded in agreement, watching the changing specs on the screen. "I guess I made the recorder too easy for them to duplicate. But since I had already seen my older self, I simply agreed with Giovanni's word that GORT had flown the coop, so to say. I never told him about the Data recorder's function, though I would assume that they put another one in its place, as they would have had to rebuild major components to replace some of the recorder's functions. Though I can't for the life of me figure where they found a recorder that had the telemetry data transducer that would accept the data being fed to it... Shadow? Shadow?"

Shadow was looking straight ahead, the odd words North had said about 'data transducer' were pounding in her head. She saw a blurry image flash before her eyes - a memory? She seemed to be lying down. Everything looked as if seen through gauze - Aliens slowly walking in silhouette within the veil of Vaseline. A furry hand reached up within her vision. It rubbed her head. It was her OWN hand – No - The memory of her first encounter with what she had become - and the panic that was ensuing around her.

"SHADOW!" she heard herself yell, but not in her voice... someone else's voice... a younger, less feline voice. "WHERE'S MY SHADOW!?" Why was she calling her own name?

Not HER name... her CAT'S name! Shadow was her pet cat!

"Systems malfunction... Systems malfunction..." a computer was moaning in the background while the aliens moved about.

"...daaaaataaaaa trrrraaaaannnnssssduuuucccerrrr - daaataaa trrraaannnsssduuucccerrr - daataa trraannssduuccerr - data transducer - data transducer" slurred and rang within her head. Then, it fit into place.

An alien had entered the room she was laying in with the largest alien looking down at her. "Sir! The data transducer has failed! It's feeding the information it's suppose to read back into the power buffers! We have a core breech in progress, sir!"

"Eject the core! NOW!" the large alien said.

"Eject! EEjjeectt! EEEjjeeecttt! EEEEjjjjeeeectttt!"

"WHERE'S MY SHADOW! SHHHAAAADOWWWW! SHHHHAAAAAADOWWWWWWW!"

"SHADOW!" North called out as he shook her shoulder, scanning her with a rod.

"Huuuuh!!" she said, waking up inhaling the air that she felt had left her briefly. Her eyes were wide and wet. They locked on North, who was examining her with his own worried look on his face.

"Shadow... where's my Shadow?" she whispered to him. She then grabbed North and sobbed on his shoulder.

Ziggy came over and rubbed his head against Shadow's back in concern. North looked at him and shrugged.

"Why is she asking where her Shadow is?" Ziggy asked North quietly.

North shook his head. "I think she's referring to her pet cat, Shadow, who was abducted along with herself, per her report..."

Shadow nodded. "I remember... the Data Transducer failed... They said something about the energy being sent back into the power buffers..."

She suddenly found herself being kissed on the forehead by North. "Shadsie, you're beautiful! That's perfect! That explains WHY they dumped the core! They had a poor copy of my Flight Data Recorder, and the Data Transducer couldn't handle the information being fed into it! Perfect!"

She looked up at North, a tired look on her face, and smiled.

"Let's take 10...you look like you need a break..."

She must have. The next thing Shadow saw was the ceiling of an apartment. She was laying back in a recliner. She checked a small watch-bob she kept on her waist. She had nodded off for about an hour and a half. Ummm... the chair felt good. She stretched, rubbing her forehead with the back of her hand. Then she noticed something.

Her claws - Normally, they were silver white like her cat's. She examined them closely and found them reddish brown. Dried blood?

Then it hit her... had she injured North earlier? She had been extremely agitated when she had grabbed him by the shoulders. Looking about, she saw the door out of the slightly messy apartment (a definite bachelor's pad). She got up and headed for the door. She found herself on the landing of an apartment overlooking the floor of the lab. Down below, North was sitting beside his workbench with his lab coat and shirt off.

But beside him, holding that strange device he had used on her earlier to relieve the pain of the Taser was Ziggy, standing upright like a human.

"Hey!" she said.

Ziggy and North looked up at the landing.

"I told you she'd get up as soon as I did this!" Ziggy said, returning to his work.

"Just hurry up...you can't do that long remember," North told the Persian.

"She got you pretty deep with this one..." Ziggy said ignoring North's comment. "This one's at least a quarter inch deep."

"There's one on this side that feels about the same," North added.

Shadow came down the steps listening to this banter, keeping her eyes glued on the upright Persian. He was busy continuing his work on North's shoulders. But then, he winced in pain and dropped the device.

"Change back! Change back! I can get the rest," North urged Ziggy.

"Sorry North," the Persian said, painfully dropping to all fours. Shadow watched in amazement as fingers retracted into paws, and an upright human form morph back into the slender feline body. The expression on his face told her that this had been extremely uncomfortable for himself. The change must have exhausted him, as he sat down with a thud. He looked up at her, a sad look on his face.

North placed a pair of bars on the floor on either side of Ziggy, telling him, "Come on... let's get you back up on the fridge..."

Ziggy struggled to his feet. Energy bands snapped between the bars. North connected a series of cables to the bar ends which reached to the ceiling to a track run winch. North lifted Ziggy gently off the floor in what turned out to be a belly hoist, and moved him over to the top of the refrigerator. There, he dropped him off and removed the bars.

"Computer, engage manual override. Turn on the refrigerator's compressor," North spoke to the air.

"Affirmative," a computerized voice said back to him. The compressor vibrated on with a whir and a buzz.

"Ahhh!" Ziggy said, as he collapsed onto the surface of the fridge. North scratched him behind the ear. Ziggy rolled over and took in the vibration.

"Thanks buddy," North told the cat.

"Merrrowlr!" Ziggy said sounding more like the Persian he was.

"What... what was that?" Shadow asked.

North continued to soothe the Persian, now standing on a step stool to be able to rub the animal's back.

"Ziggy was part of an experiment run over in the Splice and Dice labs… I'm sure you may have heard of it, since you yourself were put through some of it's later 'tests' - Project: Anthropomorphic - where they tried to splice human DNA to Pokémon DNA. They were trying to make Super Pokémon... almost destroyed the entire animal stock in the Nanomi doing it..."

"North saved some of us," Ziggy said in a raspy voice. "He made it look like some of us had died, then he cured us... reverted us as far as he could back to our original form."

"Ziggy here sometimes likes to show off to me though, don't ya buddy?" North added, applying a heavy rub to the cat's sore back. "He saw I had been injured and transformed when I wasn't looking. 'Guess you wanted to play doctor, didn't you?"

"Murrrowlrrr..." Ziggy mumbled.

"Is that what happen to me?" Shadow asked, looking up at North on his stool.

North looked down at the cat-lady. "No, what happened during the GORT events and Project: Anthropomorphic were two completely different situations," he explained as he finished with Ziggy. "You can change into a Persian, correct?"

"Yes," she replied, "though I thought it was from what they did to me after I arrived…"

North held his hand up and rocked it side to side. "Yes and no… Our scans show that they attempted to add Persian DNA to what you already had, yes… but your body promptly rejected it, as you know from how sick you became afterwards."

She growled slightly remembering how much she hated those so-called doctors who 'treated' her 'cat-flu' they had called it. "How come you didn't save me then?" she remarked. She was surprised when she saw it was Ziggy facing her after that outburst – granted he was upside-down, but he was still glaring at her.

"He did save you!" he growled. "If he hadn't sent in his own team of doctors in secret to stabilize you, you wouldn't be here today to complain about it!"

Shadowcat stepped back and looked at her hands. "Then why _can_ I change into a Persian?" she asked. Her answer came in the shape of another apple in the Professor's hand.

"You've got to love that Reality Alter," he said. "Have you ever tried to change into another Pokémon?"

Shadow shrugged. "I was always told that my transformation would be as a Persian, so that's all I ever tried to do."

North nodded. "Well, what they thought they had given you, you already had all along, again because of where you came from and where you are now. But that doesn't mean that something hasn't happened to your DNA. What we've scanned I shouldn't be able to."

North got down from his stool and grabbed his shirt and slung it on. He then picked up the wound healer that Ziggy had dropped and continued on his left arm where the Persian had left off. As he worked on it, he sat at his console and punched up some new data. Shadow watched the GORT information vanish and an outline of a human body appear. Next to it, the outline of a Persian was added.

"In the case of Project: Anthropomorphic, they literally took DNA from a human, and grafted it to the DNA of a Pokémon. In Ziggy's case, the operation nearly worked. He could become a humanoid/Pokémon. But the process nearly always broke down to which would be the dominate DNA, and rejection would begin to occur. Again, in Ziggy's case, I extracted as much of the human DNA as I could. Some of it is still there, but that's the best I could do. He now lives on anti-rejection drugs and the vibrations of my refrigerator."

"Ummmm... don't knock it until you've tried it!" Ziggy said, massaging his back with the buzzing machine.

North shook his head and switched the outline images on the screen. The one became a female human, the other a simple cat.

"Now, in your case," he told Shadow, "our scans are showing strange un-natural grafting. Where we would see a chromosome here and there exchanged for that of a new chromosome, as in a typical grafting, in your case, we see where the chromosomes are literally placed on top of one another, human and cat."

Shadow shook her head as she sat back down on the stool beside North. "Isn't that impossible?"

North nodded. "Normally, I'd say you bet it is, except, there is a way to do it. If we look closer at the chromosomes, we see this..."

The picture showed the two chromosomes side by side. It zoomed in to show that the two different chromosomes were together, with no signs of a seam splitting them apart, save the color enhancement the computer gave them.

"These chromosomes were fused together," North pointed out. "There's only one way to do that - Transmat."

For some reason she didn't understand, Shadow looked at the ceiling as if she expected to be yanked through it. "Transmat? You mean transporters? Like the way you showed me how you saved me before?"

"Beam me up Scotty, you bet," North said as he held up his hand in the Vulcan salute. "Ever see that episode where the captain was split into two by their transporter? Interesting trick, if you could survive it that is… And then they slammed him together again. Great idea, save one little problem..."

Shadow blinked at him. "And that is?"

North laughed a bit. "You'd have a small nuclear explosion, that's all... It's a simple mass to mass conversion here. First, they somehow created mass by making two of him, which, oddly enough, is quite possible. Then, just for kicks, they took two-one hundred percent mass quantities of a subject, and slap them together again. Just where did that extra hundred mass go? I'll tell you where... BOOMIE!"

Shadow shook her head at the Professor's antics. "Just what does that have to do with me then?" she asked.

North looked at her. "Oddly, it would seem the same principal took place in your situation. Somehow, they took your cat Shadow, and simply beamed it into your body. That should not be able to be done. Granted, your cat wasn't the same mass as you, but still, there would still be an unbalanced mass conversion. You should be reading a one-hundred plus percentage to your atomic structure, but you're not. Where did that extra mass go?"

Shadow looked at her hands. She hadn't lost her cat, she become one with it.

"What about the needles, the injections?" she asked. "I remember being used as a pin-cushion I seem to remember."

North rubbed the back of his neck at the thought. "Some may have been injections... but I would assume that many were actually samplings... The drawing of blood and such..."

Shadow glared at him.

"Hey, one can't experiment without knowing what they are experimenting on… besides, they didn't have one of these to use," he added as he waved his little scanning rod in the air. "But even the most ruthless scientist needs to know that the creature they may create won't just shrivel up and die the moment they zap them with something. Also in this case, I would think to prevent shock a mussel relaxant would have been given to you prior to any trans-molecule slamming experiment. Besides, transmats are freaky enough awake."

"I wouldn't know... seems I haven't been awake to see one in action," Shadow smirked.

North was about to say something, but then thought she was right and shrugged it off.

She crossed her legs and leaned back against the table she was seated on as she considered her next question carefully. "I remember being moved about by my captors – they seemed to have paralyzed my cat and I when we were brought on board… But I could still see, barely."

The scientist nodded. "That would be the typical reaction to a stasis field," he said.

"A stasis field?" Shadow asked. "What is a stasis field?"

North reached over to the PokéBall transmat and flicked a trigger. A blue energy field surrounded the red and white sphere that was seated in a holder. "That is a stasis field, again used in transmats to keep the subject being transmatted from feeling the shock of having their molecules wrenched apart at over a couple of thousand degrees. Transmats are anything but gentle!"

"Wonderful news," she grimaced. "So, why did my captors looking like MewTwos?"

North looked at Shadow with a confused expression. "What?"

"Oh, wasn't that in the dossier?" she said with a bit of sarcasm in her voice as she began to thumb through the file he had given her. "The aliens all looked like MewTwo."

North walked about and thought for a moment. "That would have happen long before they knew of MewTwo... Did you ever mention this to anyone?"

She shrugged. "I don't remember…" she replied.

"Umm, probably not, since it isn't mentioned in your dossier," he commented as he continued to think about her statement. "Did the aliens look LIKE MewTwo, or look just NEARLY like him?"

She sat up. "Nearly like HIM? You make it sound like you've met…"

"Yes, yes, nice guy – doesn't like to be bothered by nonsensicals and nonsense and plays one hell of a game of chess…" he drummed. "But did the alien look LIKE him or NEARLY like him?"

Shadow sat back at that question. Visions of the creatures that had taken her were always blurred and confusing. They did look like MewTwo, but she couldn't be sure. Then something did reveal itself to her.

"Colors..."

North cocked his head. "Ea? Colors?"

Shadow nodded. "MewTwo is gray, with a purplish belly and tail, right? But I can remember seeing some color on the heads of these aliens."

"Ah!" North said as he shook his head then punched at his console again. "Computer, bring up Storage Shunt 0-1-8-7-2-S, please?"

The floor shook for a moment, and Shadow watched a disk on the table beside her vibrate and skitter a bit. Then a door in the floor behind her opened, and a large black monolith slid up and out. North walked over to it and split the box apart in the middle, swinging the one half around to show her its contents.

Shadow looked at the stored item. It was a space suit of sorts, the helmet angled and squarish with a hose leading from the back of it to a dumpy lower section. A blue stripe ran over the top of the helmet.

She shook her head and squinted at the suit. "Possibly... I'm not sure. Where's the tail?"

North looked at the suit. "Well, there is an optional ship hook up hose that's not here, but considering the chemicals and relaxants they put into you, I'm surprised you didn't see Foghorn Leghorn in with them!"

"Who?"

North looked at Shadow over his glasses. "Never mind... Anyway, this would have been the space suit they would have worn aboard ship. I wouldn't be surprised to find that they hadn't modified them slightly, just to hide the fact to you that they were anything but true and blue aliens... It would explain why they were wondering about UFO reports in our world and what we thought of them..." He slid the case shut again and sent it descending back into its storage shunt.

He stood back as he turned towards her. "Now then… this brings us around to our next question - WHO was it that did this to you? And I have my suspicions on just who that might be..."

She leaned forwards. "You know who did this to me?" she asked while pulling at her fur. "And to my Shadow?"

North snorted. "I have a good idea... I suspect that it was the same person responsible for what happened to Ziggy as well, and many other experiments done in the name of Team Rocket... Edward Malcolm Dixon Manley, so called scientist and general quack. For the life of me, I can't figure who gave him a degree in anything... He's what most scientists call a Bam Jockey... just dive in, don't watch what you're doing - just go for results. He has caused more damage over the years than common rot. When I first ran into him, he was into transmat morphing... does that sound familiar?"

Shadow's eyes were slits, her ears flat, and her hair was on end. Ziggy saw this look, and quickly spun over and took a defensive position.

"I guess it does..." North said when he saw her reaction. "But, if he was on GORT, that would mean that he escaped the outcome of the flight as well, since I know he is still about doing whatever he calls progress. I wonder though... Computer - of my original flight crew of GORT how many are still alive?"

"Working..." the computer answered. "On file, of the original flight crew of GORT, only Professor Robert North and co-pilot Vince Charles are still alive."

The scientist shook his head. "Oh, we can do better than that, computer. Tie into the Observer's data system and cross reference with historical information on the flight crew and any augmented members added without my knowledge. Then switch to planetary scanners and use the on-file DNA cross-referencing and try that list again..."

"Working..." the computer said again.

There was a long silence as the computer complied with the requested job.

"I take it this Edward Malcolm Dixon Manley wasn't a member of your crew?" Shadow asked, waiting the computer's answer.

North glanced at her. "Why would I want some yo-yo from Slice and Dice anywhere NEAR my ship?" he said. "The answer was and is a definite NO. Therefore, if he was on board, the flight was definitely meant to get foreign DNA, and to continue some sort of strange cloning or splicing experiment."

"Ready..." the computer squawked. The large screen now showed a global map of the PokéWorld. 20 lights popped up across it.

"Well, I'll be... North to Golden R Base One..."

"Yes sir!" a voice answered back.

"George, I'm sending down a map with locations of personnel from the GORT mission. They're all supposed to be dead... Could you have someone check on the health of these folks please?"

"GORT? Good grief, Rob... Isn't that a bit old? How'd you come up with this little goodie?"

"A little kitty told me," he said with a smile and a wink. "Just check on them and get their past histories since the GORT project, okay? I want verification to how they were hidden from us."

"No direct contact?" George asked.

"No direct contact," North answered. "You are authorized to use the Observer's file service if needed."

"Right. I'll do it personally."

"Thanks George... North out."

Shadow looked at the Professor. "It sounds like you have a rather efficient organization there... Rob?"

North laughed. "The Golden R isn't the size of Team Rocket, but what we lack in mass we counter with science and knowledge."

Shadow looked at the map. "So, these people were on the ship with me, and got off as well..."

North nodded. "So it would seem... which leaves yet another question..."

Shadow looked at him, a question in her eyes. "Which is?"

"Where is GORT?" North asked. "The escape system was transmats and escape pods... Computer, scan for GORT style escape pods, or fragments thereof..."

"Working..." it replied.

The com system then keyed up again. "George to North..."

North punched a switch. "Go ahead..."

"Rob... are you sure about all those readings?"

North looked at Shadow and she at him. "You'd have to ask the computer, George... Why?"

"Well, I crossed referenced the locations of your scans... 17 of these people can be located fine... the last 3 though... Rob, they're IN zoos..."

North and Shadow stared at the monitor as three lights turned from red to green.

"George... is that one at the Nanomi?" North asked as he pointed at a light that seemed extremely close to their own position.

"Sure is... pen 24 of the Cat section," he replied. Shadow held her breath.

"Ready..." the computer interrupted.

"Okay George... Get those dossiers up to date... North out... Go computer..."

The map on the screen was overlaid in more spots. "Location of GORT escape pods located." it reported.

"Look at that... 17 escape pods... and all near a red spot on the map..." North said.

"And the three green spots... no escape pods..." Shadow added.

North sat back. "How much do you want to bet they were transmatted?"

Shadow looked at North, her eyes wide. "The lost energy!" she exclaimed.

North nodded. "It was probably still in the pattern buffers when emergency transmat took place, including yours... since they already had the pattern set for you, it was probably a simple transmat... But for these others..."

Shadow looked at the blinking green lights. Those others... Just like those others...

Half an hour later, Derek was driving them north from the lab through the tunnels. Shadow was beginning to wonder if the entire planet had these snaking underneath them.

"Nanomi Zoo, haven't been there in years," he said to his silent passengers.

North sat in the back seat quietly scratching Hydron's ear. Shadow sat in the front seat quietly stroking Bucky.

"Yup... years..." Derek said. The conversation was going to be brisk on this trip.

He pulled up to a lift. He pressed a button on the dash.

"Area above is clear," the computer said again over the radio.

The Jeep was hoisted up. Shadow found them entering a garage in the back of the Zoo near the workers parking lot.

North and Shadow got out. Derek started, but North closed his door.

"Just us, Derek - You too Bucky. We're going into the cat section, and I don't want them getting excited over you."

"Squeak!" the Pikachu said as it floated back into the car.

Shadow looked over the Jeep at North. "Won't we need him to translate for us?"

North shook his head. "We're not dealing with a Pokémon here... Bucky won't work here."

North patted Derek on the shoulder. "Keep the engine running, and listen in to G-R radio for George's reports. We'll be right back."

North and Shadow first headed for the Office of Animal Care.

"Normally at this time, most of the personnel are out on duty... we shouldn't have any problems," Shadow said.

"Just as long as you know where the file for Pen 24 is," North said.

Shadow twisted the doorknob - Locked.

"Locked?" she said. "Since when do they lock THIS door?"

North reached into his lab coat pocket. He pulled out a long pen-like device and pointed it at the doorknob in Shadow's hand. She could feel it buzz and shake. It suddenly turned with ease.

"A friend gave this to me... I must remember to get him something..."

Shadow was in and out with the file before North even got in the door. He gave her a double take and shrugged. He relocked the door and closed it.

He reached into his deep lab coat pockets and pulled out a clipboard. Taking the file, he quickly inserted it under the bar. He sat down on a park bench and looked the file over. Shadow stood about, nervous that someone might see them.

"Shadow, you're making me nervous. Sit down." North said while looking over his glasses at her again.

"But, the file... what if someone sees..."

"They'll see the head of Tech Lab One looking over a file, that's all. Why wouldn't I be looking over a file? Besides, I've already had the computer send false images over the security cameras around here. They'll never know we were here... Look at this..."

Shadow sat down and looked at the file. Most of it looked like gibberish.

"The creature was discovered within the park itself, attempting to break into the larder - _five years ago_... Its type has been listed as felinus homosolus... I don't think so..."

"What does that mean?" Shadow asked.

"Felinus Homosolus... Feline Human - Single... Let's go see the Lieutenant..."

Shadow looked at North a bit confused. Then he showed her a printout he was carrying with him.

"This is the DNA file that the computer matched. Our subject is Lieutenant Shaun Bennett... I remember him... crack engineer..." He stood up and looked about. Shadow pointed the way over to the Cat Pens.

"Let's take your route," North told her. "I'm sure you have a back way..."

"Service tunnels are this way," she said leading them to a stairwell down. Then they came to a problem.

A keypad on the wall was the way in.

"I can't punch my number in... They'll know I was here..." Shadow said, glaring at the pad.

North placed a scanning disk against the pad's box. He then waved a scanning rod over the disk. A chirp was heard and the door popped open.

"I want one of those next time I'm on a mission!" Shadow said.

"All you need do is ask," North said with a wink. "Let's go..."

They headed down the passage towards the cat pens.

"I hope most of the cats are out in their outdoor enclosures," Shadow said as they moved along.

"Why's that?" North asked.

"I never came down here much... the cats had a tendency to get a bit... how should I say..."

"Frisky?"

She looked at North with a smirk. "Yea, you could say that. Here we are..."

Another keypad - another scanning disk - Shadow and North entered the halls where the cats were kept.

"24 is down towards the end on the right," she said, starting down the hall. She stopped when North put his hand on her shoulder.

"Hold your horses there, kiddo..." he said as he scanned the area. "Umm - lucky you - Good thing it's a sunny day out there. All the cats are outside, save our friend down there. Let's go."

They approached the pen. A creature was curled up in the back corner. It was covered in dark gray fur, but unlike Shadow, it looked more like an overgrown house cat curled up like that.

"Lieutenant," North said out loud, causing Shadow to jump and look around.

The creature opened its eyes. Shadow looked at him and saw human eyes, not cat eyes. Blue human eyes, which first were in shock, then sad, then finally angry.

"Lieutenant, can you speak?" North asked, loud and commanding. Shadow looked at him. He now was acting much colder than before.

"Rrrrowlrww, hardly..." the creature said. "Wwwhat is she doing hererrrrrr?"

Shadow looked at the creature in shock.

"Shaun, we are here to help. But we need your help as well..."

"Team Rrrocket left me to rrrot in hererrrrr. Why should I help themmmm?" he growled, getting up from his curled up position.

North now saw why the creature had been titled the way it had. He still stood on his rear feet, but crouched over, his forearms dangling, cat's paws on the ends, but a definite thumb still there. And now that he stood up, his face could be seen more clearly. A cross between ape and cat was the best way to describe it.

"I'm not Team Rocket," North said, scanning him with a rod.

"She issss," he snarled, nearly hissing at Shadow.

"Not by choice," she snarled back.

"Down kiddies..." North said. "No cat fighting while I'm around."

"He started it..."

"HISSSSCK!"

"Lieutenant! Shadow! Stop it, or I'll get the fire hose," North warned.

"Shhhadow? Ah... you were given a nnname, ea?" the creature sniped. "I've been called many thingsss, but neverrr a nnname... just that bogus Latinnnn nnnamerrrr..."

"I take it you never spoke to them..." North said, putting the scanning rod away.

"Nnneverrr gave them a chance. 'Caught themssselvvves a creature, they did... Not a humannn..."

This struck Shadow. "Never say that again!" she said, turning away.

"Phaa!" it said, turning to sack out in the corner again.

"Shaun, do you know what happened to you?" North asked.

He turned and looked at North again. "I knowwrr JUST what happened... I've had five yearrrrs to THINK about it..." He raised a paw at the scientist and shook it. "YOUrrr happen... You launched that damn SHIP beforrrre full flight tests!"

North stood upright and glared down on the creature that had once been his engineer. "Lieutenant, I never gave the command to launch the ship... and I still have the flight recorder to prove it."

Shaun came over to edge of the pen closest to North. "The flight rrrrecorderrr? It should have gone up with the ship!"

"I still have it. It never left my lab. And you know what that means..."

"The shiprrr would nnnot have flownnnn!" Shaun looked about his pen. "Get me out of here, Northrrr."

The scientist smiled and pulled a pen from his breast pocket. He twisted it once then pressed the top of it.

"Computer... lock on to this com unit's signal and prepare to transmat..."

"Standing by," the pen replied.

North tossed the pen into the pen between the bars and under the creature's legs.

"Now..."

The creature shimmered then dematerialized. Shadow and North quickly left the cat house.

They returned quickly to the Jeep. North climbed into the back seat and sighed. Derek handed him a data PADD of what he had heard over the G-R radio. Shadow watched him as he read over the data. He then handed the electronic device over to her. He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. She examined the PADD.

"Subject 1," she read aloud. "Philadelphia Zoo - DNA sample says subject is Lieutenant Brandy Stewart - com operator. Health - deteriorating. Subject shows signs of possible rejection - Subject unable or unwilling to speak. Subject 2 - London Zoo - DNA sample says this subject is Team Rocket operative Duce "Baby Face" Nelson. Health - good. Subject is least transformed than others - Works as an assistant to the head keeper – Negative contact as of yet."

Then she saw a note at the bottom.

GORT located it read. Located 371 miles north of the Arctic Circle, at 74º north latitude - 99º west longitude on Prince of Wales Island, within the District of Franklin, Canada.

Shadow looked at North, who was looking back at her. "What first?" she asked.

"Back to base... we need to find out more from Shaun," he replied. Then attempt a rescue of Brandy... then GORT."

Shadow looked at the pad again. "What about this Duce character?"

North closed his eyes and leaned back in his seat. "I have a feeling that we would probably find that he's working for Giovanni still... Derek, have Base check London Zoo's Pokémon theft rate."

He handed North another PADD unit. The scientist shook his head and dropped his glasses back down onto his nose.

"Show off... humm... Make that a definite possibility." He handed it over to Shadow.

"Home, Derek."

The Cherokee dropped into the tunnel again. It was another quiet ride back - And another series of questions.

oOo

Characters from Pokémon ©2000, 07 The Pokémon Company/Nintendo/Creatures/GameFreak

Foghorn Leghorn ©2000, 07 Warner Brothers/Time-Warner Corporation  
North, The Observers ©2000-03, 05, 07 The Lugia Project/DMS - Used with Permission  
"Terminal Solutions" ©2000-03, 05, 07 Steve Brunton - Used with Permission  
Ayako & Fuego ©2000-03, 05, 07 Ayako/R. A. Stott/DMS - Used with Permission  
Shadowcat (Shadsie, Shadow) ©2000-03, 05, 07 S. E. Nordwall - Used with Permission

©2000-03, 05, 07 S. E. Nordwall/R. A. Stott - The Lugia Project II/DMS

Edited 0501.30, 0707.02


	5. Spirits & Ghosts

Originally Published Summer 2000  
First Published on FFN: 03/23/03  
Original FFN #1280256/5

**A F T E R ¤ C H R O N I C L E S  
Y E A R ¤ O F ¤ T H E ¤ C A T**

**By R. A. Stott**

_Based on characters by S. E. Nordwall and R. A. Stott  
With References to Steve Brunton's "Terminal Solutions"  
&  
C. Ruester's (TiredGamer) "Fate's Game"  
and a passing note to the works of Kosuke Fujishima_

**Chapter Five**

**Spirits & Ghosts**

Now it was five weeks ago.

3:30 in the morning.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

She watched her breath steam in front of herself. It was cool for a late summer's morning. Shadow crept behind the wall of the animal infirmary at the zoo. She carried a scanning rod, a pouch of goodies, and the pen device North had shown her to use on unwilling door locks. On her head was a com unit, which right now wouldn't be quiet.

"You know, I found it odd that this world has some of our Earth's locations, but not all of them..." the voice of North's yammered on. "Why a Pennsylvania? Why New Mexico and Arizona? Florida's there, but greatly different. And I hope you didn't have any friends in Nebraska, 'cause it's not there at all."

Shadow didn't mind the chattering in her ears too much. It gave her the feeling for once that she wasn't alone on a mission.

A light went out in a window across from her.

"Lights out," she said into her headset mic.

"Scan the area first... check for security cameras..." North told her. "And press the send button on the scanner box.

Shadow waved the rod in front of her, and pressed the button.

North watched the readouts on his large screen monitor. "Careful, Shads... your hand is showing on a camera." North used the scan readings to widen his view of the area, and found all cameras that would see Shadow's approach.

"Okay... there are six cameras that would see you head for your target... Stand by…

"Computer," she heard him now address, "using scan details, project a false image to these cameras for 30 minutes, on my mark… mark."

"Affirmative..." the lab's computer said.

Shadow looked about. She could see three little red lights turn on around her.

"North, it looks like all these cameras are still active..."

North looked at his readouts. "No... They're quite under my computer's command. You may be seeing their activation lights... while they're all on like that, the computer has control. Go!"

Shadow darted across the compound between the wall and the doorway she needed to access. A scanning disk to the side of a keypad, and a wave of the scanning rod, and she was in.

"I'm bringing you along on all of my missions from now on, North!" she grinned as she saw how easy getting in had been.

"Backup is always the way to go. Scan please..." she heard in her ear.

Shadow waved the rod again. "Security guard at the end of this hallway... another one upstairs near the room I need to get to..."

North looked at the readouts. "Okay, I'll get the first guard moving away from you... Computer, scan security guard station 1... Locate monitor 2... Run program Massa-1."

"Affirmative..."

The guard was nearly dozing off, when a motion detector went off. He checked his monitor, and saw a gorilla stroll through the courtyard to his right. He pulled his gun, and headed away from Shadow.

"Nice," she smiled. "What did you show him?"

"A gorilla from our Philly Zoo, the late great Massa. That should confuse the bejeebies out of him... they don't HAVE gorillas here on this PokéWorld... Scan please..."

"Scan please, scan please..." Shadow mocked, and waved the rod as she moved past the security station.

"STOP!"

Shadow plastered herself against a wall. North's yelling in her ear stung a bit.

"What?" she hissed.

"Motion detectors, see them?"

She looked at the pad connected to the rod. Small green spots were blinking across the board.

"Nuts... can your computer get these as well?"

North laughed. "My old confuser is used to multi-tasking things like this. Computer, run Shadow's Shadow..."

Shadow watched the green spots turn red.

"It's a masking program that sets up a bubble around you. But you must scan the area first before entering, otherwise the mask will fail. Go!"

Shadow moved quickly to a stairwell leading up to the floor she needed to find - the ICU.

"I still don't know why you simply didn't either beam her out of here, or beam me right into her room..." Shadow quietly said ascending the stairs.

"Couldn't risk it," North replied over the headset. "I don't know what Brandy's condition is, and whether she'd be able to transmat, and I couldn't send you directly to her, because I don't know the layout of her room."

"You couldn't scan it?"

North sighed. "There are two types of scanning. Light scanning like what you are doing which is very un-intrusive - and long range scanning, or heavy scanning. If I had done that, I would have set off every electromagnetic device in her room."

Shadow stifled a laugh. "Kind of like sneaking in with a sledge hammer, ea?"

"Good analogy... Scan please..."

She waved the rod again, and looked at the pad.

"What are those?" she asked at two slowly moving targets on the far end of a hallway from the door she had just reached. She peeked through a small window in the door.

"Stay put, Shadow... Growliths... Probably free roaming security for this floor. I'll take care of them."

North moved over to the refrigerator in the lab. It looked empty with Ziggy out. Giovanni was on some important meeting, and had wanted his status symbol with him. Ah well...

He reached inside, and pulled two plates out.

As he headed for his PokéBall Transfer unit, a com beeped. "Infirmary Security Station 1 to control... over."

"Go ahead Security..." North said, placing the plates on the transmat pad.

"Control, my monitor just showed me something moving about in the west courtyard of the Infirmary..."

"Yea, we have him... It was one of our young intern keepers... dressed up in a Primeape outfit... he was trying to spook his girlfriend..."

"Aw, for the luvofa... tell that idiot he nearly had his head handed to him!"

"No prob... control out." North said then sent the two plates off on their mission.

Shadow watched as the two plates shimmered into existence far ahead of her. The Growliths found them quickly and dove into the free food.

"Must be good..." she said aloud.

"Only the finest," North said.

Shadow watched as the Growliths circled around then sack out, content and drugged.

"Scan please..." She heard. She shook her head.

Shadow made her way to the back of the ICU, clearing a nurse's station and the on-duty veterinarian's office. She peeked around a corner down another hallway and saw the other guard seated at a doorway. A sign above him said 410.

"You want room 412..." North said to her.

"I wonder what's in 410 that's got that guard there?" Shadow whispered.

North checked his scans from Shadow's rod. "There are two nurses and a doctor, err, vet in that room... they seem to be working on a large Pokémon... Looks like a Blastoise... a BRANDED Blastoise... ah... that's what the security is for..."

"What?" Shadow asked, moving away from the guard to voice her alarm at hearing of branding a Pokémon. "Who brands Pokémon?"

"Team Rocket used to. I read an 'R' on the shell of the Blastoise... he must be quite old to have that mark still... They're going to loose him too, if they don't get that stone out of his gullet..."

Shadow looked puzzled. "How did... oh, the scanner..."

"Catchy little device, isn't it?"

Shadow peeked around the corner again. The guard was reading some magazine.

"So, how do we get around him?" she asked.

"Use the force, Luke..." North replied.

"What?"

"Use your mental abilities to put him to sleep!" North explained.

Shadow looked around for a moment. That wasn't what she wanted to hear.

North saw the hesitation. "Shadow, I know you're nervous about using your powers like this... I don't use mine either... morals, I guess... It just never felt right. But if you don't put him to sleep, you're never going to get down to that room."

She looked up. She then saw something she had overlooked - A concave mirror. One short glance at it, and the guard would see her easily against the white walls of the hallway. She had no choice... She thought hard. She hadn't tried this without writing it on the ground before.

"Sleep!"

North watched the readout. Then he panicked.

"Shadow, you just knocked out the doc - err - vet! There goes the nurse... and the other! SHADOW! AIM BETTER!"

Enough... Shadow looked squarely around the corner at the guard, who barely glanced at her before proceeding to saw wood. She got up and headed for the operation room.

"What about them?" she said, looking in on the three slumbering infirmary workers and the Blastoise. North had been correct. A glaring 'R' stared Shadow in the face.

"Don't worry about them. I'll take care of it. You just get down to Brandy's room!" North told her as he moved to a set of mounted rubber gloves attached to the transmat. A screen on a monitor snapped to life, and he started to work.

Shadow scanned the doorway and found the room locked. A quick zap with North's little miracle pen, and the door sprung open. What Shadow found inside shocked her.

Normally in infirmaries in zoos, sick animals would be kept in special cages, pens and sometimes gurneys. This one was in a bed - a regulation hospital bed. Examining it closer, she found "Thomas Jefferson University Hospital" stamped on the foot board.

"Jefferson, ea?" she heard North say. He was obviously doing something, as she could hear him grunting and working over the com. "Good hospital... I bet they're very interested in her... it would explain the myriad of cameras around the room."

Shadow looked about. Sure enough, there were cameras on all four walls, all with their red 'active' lights gleaming from a computer override. She looked down on the person in the bed. She was surprised at what she found.

She looked like a sister - Almost identical in all aspects - save her hair on her head. It was shorter, and brown.

Shadow found a dossier on a table nearby. A quick glance told her of trouble.

"Rob, they know where she's from," she said into her com.

North looked up at the monitor from his work. "How so?"

"I found her file... She was found in full uniform - A space suit with a large red R on it - They know she's a Rocket."

"I'm surprised there wasn't a guard on her door as well then..." he said.

Shadow thought a moment. "There was a chair out there..."

"Scan! Quickly! Increase the range if you have to..."

Shadow quickly waved the rod about. North watched the readouts.

"There's a guard in the Cafeteria downstairs... looks like he's about to... yes, he's heading out... I'd say he's five minutes from returning to his post. You'll need to hurry, Shadow. First get a quick scan of Brandy for me..."

Shadow waved the rod over the bed.

"Rob, this thing says she's nearly on full life support..."

"She's Golden R - I'm not about to leave her there," North said. "Check her equipment... see if there's a portable power hookup."

Shadow looked at the machinery streaming from the body. A large box-like unit sat beside the girl in the bed.

"I found a receptacle, but no power unit attached."

"Scan it..." North said while working with the gloves.

"Guard - 3 minutes and approaching..." the computer squawked.

North looked at the huge power receptor that Shadow sent him on the monitor.

"Computer, assemble a power unit for the shown receptacle, using the specs being transmitted on band 4 - Transmat device to Shadow-1."

"Affirmative," the computer said.

Shadow watched as a heavy looking box materialized before her.

"What do I do with this thing?" she asked.

"There's a cable coming from it. Just plug it into the unit. After that, you'll need to unplug all connections to any wall coming from her or her bed," North said. "AH! Gotcha!"

Shadow looked curiously at the cable as she listened to North on her com unit. "North, what are you doing?"

"I just removed the rock from the Blastoise using my transmat gloves. Hurry..."

"Guard - 2 minutes and approaching."

Shadow attached the unit to the machine. She found a hook to hang it from, and attempted to lift it. It was incredibly heavy! The floor was where it was going to stay!

"I will assume that removing these connections won't trigger an alarm," she said into her com, as she removed the plugs to the walls.

"The computer's already on it," North said. "Though, at this point..."

"Gotcha," Shadow noted his tone.

"Guard - 1 minute and closing..." The computer might be 'on it' but it sure wasn't helping.

"Okay, she's free... now what?"

North moved to his console. "Stand by for transmat," he said, just as there was a knocking at his door. Nuts. Who'd be knocking at 4 in the morning!? He quickly slid the monitors away, and started the transmat sequence.

Shadow first saw the bed and equipment start to vanish. Then she felt herself start to tingle just as a guard walked quickly by the window to the room. Bye-bye!

When she looked about next, she found herself in a dark room. The bed and girl were there in front of her. To her right was large equipment that she finally recognized. They were the two cryo pods she had seen before. She had been beamed into the secure testing bunker beside North's lab.

"Computer, lights," she said, and was surprised to see that it answered her with what she asked for.

"Shhh!"

Shadow looked about. Where did that come from? She looked up at the landing station above her. Shaun was up there. She headed for the stairs.

"Shaun, what's up?" she asked her fellow cat-like person. He was acting a bit paranoid. He also had one of his cat-like ears plastered to the vault door.

"Giovanni's herrrre... Just showed up... Out of the bluerrr... 4 in the morrrrning! Norrrth shut me in... Shhhh!"

Shadow shook her head at the silly beast. "That's a 30 inch thick sound-proof door... at least sound-proof for Gio... It's your ears that are allowing you to hear him."

"But why isss he herrre? It'sss 4 in the MORRRNING!"

"Good question..." Shadow said, pressing her ear to the wall and hearing the muffled sounds of talking on the other side. "Computer, may we have an audio of the lab please?"

"Clearance code please..." the computer asked. Shadow thought a moment, and shrugged.

"Shadow-1?" she guessed.

"Clearance granted..." the computer said, and the console beside them came to life.

"Norrrth must rrreally trust you..." Shaun said, watching the com snap to.

"...in the morning, you're overdoing yourself again, Rob," the voice of Giovanni said.

"Hey, sometimes experiments can't wait for bedtime. How'd the meeting go?"

"Phaa... Store business - An important supplier of computer goods with a new product. Something that everyone won't be able to live without in the near future... the usual..."

"Ah, keep the customer satisfied, ea?" North said over the com. The two men laughed. Then Shadow heard the sound of something being picked up, the sound of plastic. Then a familiar ping sound.

"What's this?" Giovanni asked.

Shadow could hear North walking over to Gio. "Just a vestige of home," he said. "A GameBoy."

Shadow thought for a moment. 'Vestige of home?' That would mean... Giovanni knows that North wasn't from this world?

"What is it?" the boss asked.

"A simple hand-held game with interchangeable game cartridges," North answered calmly.

Shadow heard the device being turned about and examined.

"Tetris?"

Ah, North had changed the cartridge from Pokémon Yellow to Tetris.

"How well did these sell on your world?"

Shadow heard North laugh. "Millions... You'd make another mint with that device and the other gaming units that company made... though it could undermine the Pokémon market..."

"How so?" Giovanni asked.

"Think of it. All those 10 year olds suppose to be traveling about the countryside learning the ways of the Pokémon, and only wanting to sit about at home playing video games instead."

"Insidious... Still... It's worth looking into - send me a report on it."

"Sure. How's Fluff?"

"He wanted to sack out on your refrigerator again. I don't know what it is about that machine of yours, Rob."

"It's the only one big enough for him, Gio. He can't get up on that one in your apartment, and I think the chefs would chase him out of the commissary if he tried to get up on theirs."

Shadow heard Giovanni laugh. She had never heard him simply talk like that before. Not ordering, just gassing about. It was different - Almost human.

"Okay, Rob. Be ready for me in the morning... We have that meeting with the Tech boys down at Lab Two..."

"Oh great... I'll bring the extinguishers - again!"

Shadow heard North moving about the room. She heard the familiar sound of the step stool North used to work on Ziggy's back slide across the floor. North was stepping up on it. Now he seemed to be working on something... but also not saying anything. She then heard the sound of something closing.

"There, that's got it," North said.

"I hate that collar..." Ziggy said.

"Well, if you hate that one so much, have another!" North said to the cat over the com. "Standby Shadow, I'm coming... Doctor McManus and Team 1 to the secure chamber."

The vault door clicked then began to swing open. Below, Shadow and Shaun saw people start to enter from under the stairwell. Technicians and doctors began to gather around the bed. Many were wearing odd uniforms or had a symbol on their shoulder of a PokéBall with a halo over it. There was even a woman wearing the same military getup she had seen that other woman wearing on the video North had shown her. She seemed to be in charge of all the commotion around Brandy.

North entered the chamber and gave Shadow a hug.

"Great work. Perfect," he said with a smile.

"What was with Giovanni?" she asked with slight reserve at the cheerful greeting that North had given her.

North gave her a look back. "What did I say before about Giovanni? Placate. Give him what he wants in a way he doesn't expect, and in a way that doesn't harm anything and you'll keep him happy and out of your hair."

"Have you ever had to do anything that DID harm anything?" Shadow asked sternly.

North shook his head. "No. I have always been able to find a way around it. Or, I plead incompetence to what he requested. Usually, he'll find someone else to do it, or if he insist, I'll still come up with a suitable - non hazardous - solution." He turned his attention to those below.

"Attention, doctors and technicians... I would like you to get your recommendations for Miss Stewart's situation to me as quickly as possible. Mr. Langstrom, you are authorized to use the LSV if necessary. Team 2, I think Mr. Bennett would like you to check him over as soon as possible as well. Please attend to him as soon as you have finished with Miss Stewart. Abigail, Brandy is all yours. Thank you everyone - great job tonight! Derek, to my lab please."

North left the testing bunker with Shadow close behind.

"What's an LSV?" she asked.

"Life Support Valve," North said, taking his seat at his console. "A device being loaned to us from a friend of the Stratus League. It regenerates cells and maintains life - sometime restores life if caught quickly enough. But it sometimes has a slight drawback..."

"And that is?" Shadow asked.

North looked back at the vault door. "If used too much, the energy used can become nearly permanent. The cells continue to regenerate. You could become nearly immortal."

She looked back as well. "Is that a problem?" When she returned back to North, he was pointing at his head.

"The mind can't keep up. As you grow older, but your body doesn't, the mind seems to just start to do the basics to keep the body running and little else. You eventually would starve to death, but only after a long time as the energy reserves from the LSV finally are depleted."

Shadow gave North a slight look of horror. "And you're willing to use this machine?"

North shook his head. "I never said that it was a miracle cure, or that it didn't work. When used properly, it does its job. And those technicians down there are the best at what they do."

Shadow sat down on her stool. "What about Giovanni?" she asked.

"What about him?" North replied, watching the monitors as they returned to the lab's floor.

"Why does he know that you're from a different planet?"

North looked at Shadow. "He's always known. It was in the original report by the Golden R to TR Headquarters. Remember, at first, the Golden R didn't know it was Giovanni's father that was trying to destroy them. So they kept sending in reports until it dawned on them what was going on."

Shadow looked puzzled. "So how did THEY find out?"

"They?" North asked as he gave her the puzzled look right back.

"The Golden R," she exasperatedly asked. "How did they know you weren't from this world?"

"Ah, well first it was probably the way my car suddenly appeared in front of them in the middle of the forest out of a sub-space vortex? That would be one good reason to suspect I wasn't from these parts… Second, the road atlas I had in my glove box when they dissected the remains of my Impala. Remember me telling you about Nebraska not being in this universe? Well, just think what THEY thought when they got a gander at THAT map!"

Derek appeared at the vault door. "Yes, sir?"

The scientist placed his arm over Shadow's shoulder and shook her. "Miss Shadow has done us a great service tonight, Mr. Kasagi. Would you please take her to her home where she may rest a bit?"

"Yes, sir!" he said with a salute. Shadow stood up again. North was right, she was beat.

"Hey, I'm sorry for snapping at you..." she said.

North smiled. "Hey, what was it they used to say on X-Files? 'Trust no one?' - Go home. Get some rest. I'll keep you posted on things."

She smiled and turned to head out with Derek. "May I come back tomorrow?" she asked over her shoulder.

North nodded. "My dear, you are always welcome here. Goodnight."

Shadow checked her watch-bob. "Good morning..." she said then headed down the stairs. She stopped momentarily to watch the crews below her working feverishly on the girl in the bed.

Such a life.

She slept most of the way back to the Café with Bucky curled up in her lap.

When they arrived at the Café, Bucky was the only thing to keep her up as she climbed the stairs to her loft. She could have sworn she felt wings flapping against her back.

Four in the afternoon arrived painfully. Eleven and a half hours of sleep. Why did she feel so stiff? Uhhh... She sloughed off her bed sheets and groused into the bathroom.

A fresh set of duds, and a brief wash-up later and Shadow was ready to go. She tapped on Bucky's PokéBall and headed for the door. She turned expecting either the small yellow Pokémon to be riding the orb like he did or for it to thwack the palm of her hand. But it just sat there. She returned to it and tapped on it again and it opened. However this ball was suppose to work, an empty ball was an empty ball.

Shadow scratched her head. She slipped on her PokéBall belt and picked up Baka's and Aslanti's spheres to attach them, but they felt light... She opened the emitter to look at the condition marker. A blue dot greeted her. The PokéBalls were empty. Fear and panic began to swell inside her as she thought she had been burgled. That was when she heard a familiar growl outside her window.

She opened the window and stuck her head out. A pair of fiery eyes looked up at her.

"Ah... sleepyhead is up," Aslanti said.

Shadowcat was about to scold her Pyrlion, but the sound of his deep rumbling voice ran through her. He had never spoken before. The cat was surprised to see her vanish from the window. She was down the steps and out the back door of the Café before Sforzie saw the blur.

"Say that again!" Shadow said to Aslanti.

She got a hot tongue washing instead.

"Hot! Hot! Dat's gotta-a-a beee-e-e-e hot!" Baka said. Bucky was sitting on his head.

"Well, he is one hot kitty," Hydron said from her position lying under a nearby tree.

"Are they at it again?" Sforzie asked, coming up behind Shadow, startling her.

"Again?" Shadow asked as she caught her breath, not sure if she should even attempt to keep the speaking Pokémon a secret.

"Talking... I swear, I'm about to put a sign up in the window, 'Come in and hear your Pokémon talk!' They've been yakking ever since Derek and his Pokémon arrived. You Golden R types don't have a special device on you, do you?"

"Nope, just special Pokémon," Hydron said, putting her head on her forepaws and snoozing off.

"Squeak!"

Sforzie scratched Bucky's head. "It's a shame about you, isn't it Bucky? All these other Pokémon speaking up a storm and you can't speak a word."

"Dex!" he said.

"Dex?" Sforzie asked. "Did you say Dex?"

"Squeak!"

Shadow shook her head. She still had some scolding to give out.

"Why are you two out of your PokéBalls?" she finally got in word wise.

"We haven't been out of our PokéBalls in four days..." the ground rumbled beside her. She turned and listened to the eyes looking at her. "It gets kind of cramped in those PokéBalls, you know... And I HATE PokéBalls."

"I love my-y-y PokéBal-l-l-l! Love it! Love it! Love it! BAAAKA!" the goat pranced.

"You would," Hydron mumbled.

"We just needed to get out and stretch our legs, mistress... nothing more..." Aslanti said to his owner, rubbing his big massive head against hers.

"Oh, I don't care, I just LOVE that voice coming from you!" she said, hugging her Aslanti.

While she hugged the Pyrlion, he gave a big sniff.

"All right, who is he?" he grumbled.

Shadow pulled away and looked Aslanti in the face. "Who?"

"The other cat. I smell another cat on you."

"Ah-h-h-h! Let me smell! Let me smell!" said Baka as he jumped about. Bucky landed in Sforzie's hands.

"Squeak..."

"You can say that again," Sforzie said looking at the baka Baka.

Shadow thought for a moment. "Ah, Ziggy... oh... Ziggy... Now Aslanti... he's just a Persian in..."

"A PERSIAN!" roared Aslanti. "I have been replaced by a mere PERSIAN!?"

"Persian! Persian! BAAKA!"

"QUIET!" Shadow shouted.

Sforzie stroked Bucky's head and rolled her eyes. "Get them talking and they won't stop. They're as bad as humans!"

"Squeak."

Shadow glared at the Pyrlion. "You smell Ziggy. He is Giovanni's Persian. That is all."

"All?" the ground trembled.

"ALL," the air blistered back.

She got another hot tongue stroke up her cheek. Yuck.

"So, you've got to tell me, how's it done?" Sforzie asked.

"Done?" Shadow asked right back, wiping the tongue stroke off.

Sforzie started to scratch Bucky behind his ear. "How do they get the Pokémon to speak?" she asked not knowing the reason was in her arms.

"That," Derek announced as he came around the side of the building, "is a secret, which can not be divulged right now."

"It can't be much of a secret... it only happens when you three are about," Sforzie said handing Bucky over to the Golden R agent. "And I can rule YOU out, since they were talking without your presence."

Derek smirked. "I was here when they first came out. I could have left whatever it is with them."

Sforzie looked at Derek with a disdainful expression on her face. "I don't trust you… remember that," she snorted. She then turned and walked away in disgust.

"If she only knew just how close she was to the reason," Aslanti purred.

"Squeak!"

Shadow shook her head and looked at the yellow critter in the Golden R's arms. "So, who's Dex?" she asked him as she twittled his ear.

Derek looked at Shadow confused. "Dex?"

"Yea - He said Dex," she said pointing at Bucky.

Derek looked at the yellow ball in his hand. "I've only ever heard him say 'squeak' - never..."

"Dex!" the Pikachu said, finishing the line.

Derek looked at the Pikachu in astonishment. "Well! I've never heard him say that before..." he said, scratching his head. "Maybe Professor North knows more..."

The communicator nearly jumped out of Derek's hand when he called the Lab. They were ordered immediately to report in.

"Dex?" North asked. "Bucky said Dex?"

"Yes sir," Derek said, standing next to Shadow in the lab and Bucky sitting on the table in front of them.

"Dex!" he added just to prove them right.

North sat back in his chair. He reached over and keyed a com switch.

"Tech Lab One to the Stratus – Come in..."

"This is Stratus League Command," a reply came. "Go ahead Captain..."

North rolled his eyes, not expecting that answer. "Command, I'm in my lab with customers..."

There was silence... then a quiet "Oops... sorry..."

"Never mind..." he grumpily continued. "Give me President Natsumi please."

"Dex!"

"Yes, yes... Dex..." North mumbled to the Pikachu as he waited to be connected.

"Dex! Dex! Dex!"

The com popped as the President came on. "Sabrina here... what can I do for you Robert?"

"Sabi, I've got Bucky here," he said.

"Oh, how's that little imp doing?" she asked. "Is he causing you any problems?"

North scratched his ear then started scratching Bucky's. "No, no, he's being a trooper," the scientist told her. "It's just that he's suddenly expanded on his vocabulary."

The com made a sound as if some papers had been put down near it. "Vocabulary?" it asked. "I thought Bucky could only squeak."

"Dex!" Bucky called out.

Shadow and Derek looked at one another wondering what this all meant. The noise off the com was that of the papers were now hitting the floor.

"What was that?" it asked.

"That was Bucky," North answered. "He's saying Dex."

There was silence again. "Really..."

"Really..." North looked at the two in front of him waiting for the next question.

"Do you think they've granted our request?" the President asked.

North looked at the small Pikachu, who instantly stuck up a victory sign. "I've got a yellow critter here giving me the big thumbs up, Sabi."

Silence again. "It sounds like we're underway then... I'll have the crews start looking for him then."

The Professor sat back and crossed his arms with an impressed expression on his face. "Okay then. We'll be on the lookout as well. North out."

He looked at Bucky. "Well... here we go then..."

"Squeak!"

"Right..." North said as he clapped his hands together and looked at the confused faces being dropped on him from across the table. "Okay, first question... Derek..."

"Who or what is a Dex?"

"Fine... a good question, but before we go there, Shadsie?"

"Captain?"

North smirked and looked at the floor briefly. "Okay, Derek already knows the answer to that question, so I'll explain that one for you, dear. Captain is my rank with the Observer's Corps, and is what those with the Stratus League refer to me as… Simple, no?"

The blank expression on Shadow's face told him no - he shook his head and continued.

"Now, as for the main question of the day… Dex was the name of Bucky's twin brother."

"Oh, Bucky had a twin…" Shadow cooed as she reached over and scratched his head. "Had? As in no longer?"

North nodded as he crossed his arms. "You knew his brother," he told her. "His name was Pikachu Ketchum."

Shadow and Derek stared at the little yellow rodent on the table, but for different reasons.

"You were the twin brother of the Twerp's Pikachu?" Shadow asked Bucky as she scratched his chin. She heard the scientist clear his throat and looked over at the nasty expression she was getting.

"This is one of those areas where I must agree with Giovanni," he groused. "I was never a fan of the term 'Twerp'… Try _Ash_..." He finished it off with a nasty grin. "Okay?"

Shadow smiled sheepishly as she shrunk back a bit. "Sorry, I hung around with Jesse and James too much... the name kind of stuck."

Derek stood pondering the Pokémon on the table. "Dex the Pikachu... I remember that story... That was the name given to the Pikachu bread in captivity by Professor Oak. The first successful captive breeding of a paired Pikachu..." Derek then stepped back, which made Shadow jump a bit as he did this.

"Professor," he asked North, "wasn't his twin... stillborn?"

Shadow was still blindly scratching Bucky's ear. "Stillborn?" she asked. "As in…"

"Squeak!" Bucky said with his customary victory sign added for flair. He looked back as he felt Shadow's hand pull away.

"Umm… doesn't stillborn normally mean… you're not exactly… alive?" she asked feeling the creeps starting to roll up her legs.

Bucky turned around when he felt North continue the ear scratch from where Shadow left off. "That is why he can't speak," he explained. "It is also the reason why the Pokémon can speak when he's around, and why he can float about… I'm sure you've caught him floating about, am I correct?"

Both Derek and Shadow nodded slightly. "I thought it was that weird PokéBall," she added.

"No, that ContainerBall just has a dimensional storage shunt in it," North noted. "All flying is done by our little friend here. Bucky, could you show us your full power, please?"

Bucky gave North a wary look then one to the others as well. He shrugged and bent over.

To Shadow and Derek, it looked as if the small rodent was having a fit of some sort, as it strained and gritted its teeth. It then stopped and peeked back at them. It got a tap to the forehead for that.

"Hey," North prodded him. "Come on… you can't be that tired. It's been over two weeks since you went full power. You remember what your coach said – you've got to practice!"

The little Pikachu sighed and nodded then proceeded to concentrate on the task at hand. His form first grew a little. But what got Shadow's eyes to grow wide and Derek to step back slightly was when he started to glow – not your normal Thundershock electrical explosion type glow, but a phosphorescence that emanated off his body and made him look ethereal. But what drove it home was when wings sprouted and a halo appeared over his head. He shyly looked back at the two behind himself and nodded.

"…squeak…"

Shadow clutched her mouth, the image before her almost too much to behold. She pulled out of her shirt a thin gold chain that hung around her neck that bore a cross. "Mother of god… An - an angel?" she said gasping. "He's an angel!?"

She saw the expression on Bucky's face. He seemed dejected that he had to have presented himself to her like that – as if he had lost a friend because of it. She also saw North gesturing for her to come over to the table. He then exasperatedly grabbed her hand and brought it over to the Pikachu and placed it on its head between the halo and the ears.

"He's the same Bucky, only with a hell of a lot more power," he told her. True enough, the fur still felt warm to the touch. She scratched him a bit as he chirped.

"Robert," she glared at the scientist. "An angel?"

North held his hands up. "Yes, indeed. An angel – a very much _on loan_ angel, as will his brother be when he arrives."

Shadow stepped back causing Bucky to look back at her. "Rob, what are you saying?" she asked. "The Ketchum kid's Pikachu is dead."

"Well so is Bucky, but you don't see that stopping him, do you?" he replied.

"Squeak!"

Somehow she got the feeling that had been Bucky's equivalent to Meowth's old 'Dat's RIGHT!' statement. "Okay… why are we getting these two… Pikachu Cherubs in the first place?"

North stepped over to his control board. "Just over a week ago, members of the Pokémon League, the Stratus League, the Golden R and a few others received a message via their PokéDexes..." he told them as he punched his own up onto the monitor screens. In bold letters a message rolled across the heading of topic #25 Pikachu - 'BE WARNED - LUGIA IS RETURNING - PREPARE...' It looped and repeated itself.

"Lugia... I remember reading about him..." Derek said as he came around the table towards the screen. "He's one of the Legendary Birds - the God of the Sea isn't he?"

North nodded in agreement. "It manifested itself about a year and a half ago. What was thought to have been a creature that would 'destroy heaven and earth,' turned out to be the bird to settle the row caused by the other Legendary Birds – with assistance from the chief 'Twerp' and his Pikachu."

Shadow blinked at North's use of 'Twerp' there. She noticed the sarcastic look he was giving her. He winked then continued.

"So, we have Lugia returning... why? When last we saw, he was a helpful benevolent sea god, out to police the other Legendary Birds, rather than destroy the planet. Why should we worry if he's coming back? That of course set off alarms simply because of what happened the last time he appeared."

"Do we know who sent the message?" Derek asked.

North looked at them and nodded. "As an Observer, I do... The rest of the Stratus doesn't. And neither does the Golden R - But I do, yes." He turned to the screens and pointed at a graph chart that was appearing on the largest one.

"The message is time distorted," he explained. "It was sent roughly eight months from now. It was specifically targeted for PokéDexes belonging to the Stratus League, The Pokémon League, the Bureau of Trainers and Breeders, the Golden R, and Team Rocket. It used an encryption that I developed twenty years ago."

Shadow shook her head. "You sent it?" she asked.

North turned towards her and pointed. "No, _you_ sent it..."

"I sent it?" She looked around the room. "_I_ sent it? How did I send a message back in time eight months from now?"

North shrugged as he sat on a stool. "I don't know yet. I do know it was from a ship of some sorts either in orbit or at the Stratus League. I'm still trying to figure it out."

Shadow thought as she watched Bucky revert back to just the little Pokémon she had seen before. Then she looked up at North with an idea.

"GORT?" she asked.

North looked at the screen reading the data flow from the message. "Possibly… I can't tell yet. All I can tell is that the source is the com unit I gave you the other day."

Shadow pulled the small transceiver unit off her belt she had hung beside her PokéBalls and examined it.

"This little thing did all that?" she asked pointing to the message on the screen.

"Well, it was augmented by the com station that actually sent the message. I never designed a personal communicator to be a temporal transmitter – it would need a booster to do that anyway. But then again, I never designed the transmitter on GORT to be one either... What that really means is, though, is that the only reason for you to use your unit was to tell us that it was indeed YOU who did that transmission."

Shadow nodded in agreement. "True... why else would I have used it... if whatever ship's own communications system could have been able to do it without this thing..." She flipped the device and slipped it back onto her belt.

"Exactly..." North said as he tapped his controls again. "Now, we got this one earlier today..." Another message came up. This time it was on the PokéDex's introduction page.

"Another one?" Shadow asked before reading the longer message. "Did I send this one?"

"No," North grunted. "There wasn't a signal code associated with this one, which means that it came from a higher authority."

For some reason, Shadow could only think about hot dogs at that moment. She shook her head and started to read the message.

'_An agent of good will arrive today at the Vermilion City Holiday Inn to advise you all on what is about to happen and what can be done about it. You will find him in the Honeymoon Suite. Please send Officer Ketchum to meet the agent and his trainees.'_

Derek examined the screen closely. "Honeymoon Suite?"

Shadow wondered about something else. "Officer Ketchum?"

North stifled a slight laugh. "Mr. Ketchum, while brooding about life, the universe and everything, has been in training as an Officer with the Pokémon League. Basically, if he can't _BE_ a Pokémon Master, he'll _police_ those who wish to become one."

"Suddenly I have this chill running through me..." Shadow said as she shivered slightly. "Doesn't that bode badly for Team Rocket? I mean, Jesse and James hounded the Twe... Ketchum kid for his Pikachu for years."

North looked over at Shadow. He had a smile crossing his face.

"What?" she asked. "Rob, what have you got on your mind?"

"I think I have another field job for you," he replied as he put his arm over her shoulder. Giovanni thinks I have you out looking for Jessebelle for him, which I would like you to do sometime... But not right now. First, I think you should get over to a listening post I'm installing over at this Holiday Inn – I think you may find it... interesting?" He then placed a small box in her hand.

"What's this?" she asked, looking at the little device.

"It's a small field generator," he told her. "You'll need it. Set it to automatic and hook it to your belt."

She did so and nearly dropped it. It felt like it had shocked her. She looked at North, who was reaching over to his console. Oddly, he seemed stiff. She looked at Derek and found him looking at her, but also wasn't moving.

"Hey..." Shadow said as she waved her hand in front of Derek's face and not getting any response.

"Squeak?"

"Bucky?" she said, looking down at the Pikachu. He seemed to be the only one moving. Across the room from her she saw a sight that really told her something was afoot. Ziggy had jumped down from the refrigerator - almost. He hung in the air like a mobile.

"Bucky, what's going on here?" she asked frightened.

"Squeak!" he said, floating over to her and pressing the button on the device. Instantly, he vanished and all started moving again.

"Hey, where'd you go?" Derek called out not seeing Shadow for a second then noticing she was a few feet from where he had just been watching her.

"What?" North asked, looking back at the two.

"What... what happened there?" Shadow said, shaken by what she had just seen. "You all suddenly weren't moving..."

North looked at her over his glasses. "Really? And you turned off the field generator?"

"No, Bucky did... w-why?"

North shook his head and looked at his watch. "Umm... We may not be seeing him for a few minutes..."

"North... WHAT HAPPENED?" Shadow shouted. North put his hands up to deflect the yell.

"You were caught up in someone else's time-jump" he said. "My scanner's show that it's now over with... It was sheer luck you chose that very moment to turn on your generator just when they did it."

Shadow looked at the box and shook her head. "Time-jump? What's that?"

"It's when someone literally jumps off the time stream, kind of into a null time void. That device allows you to follow them into this void, by keeping your temporal time-flow rolling along when these time-outs happen."

Shadow fingers shook as she fiddled with little box. "How long has _THAT_ been going on?"

"Oh, it happens all the time," North said, looking at his board. "Yup, just went through 3 more in the last minute. You see, in our time-flow, we never notice these little bursts. But my computer does, because its memory banks are protected with a field generator much like that unit in your hands."

"Then... what happen to Bucky?"

North had to stifle a laugh. "He, umm, took a trip... since he didn't do the actual time jump, when he turned off your device he stayed in relative position in time. He's somewhere off in THAT direction, probably about 20 miles away."

Shadow looked at the solid wall that North was pointing at. "How?" she asked.

"Planetary rotation," North replied. "The planet rotates roughly 1000 miles per hour. Divide that by 60 minutes then adjust for general momentum... yea, about 20 miles..."

"Squeak..." Bucky said as he came through the wall, looking a touch bedraggled.

Shadow looked at the slightly mussed up Pikachu and felt sorry to put him through that.

"What causes these, err, time-jumps?" she asked.

North scratched his cheek. "Well, just about any energy based creature can jump time... Obviously Bucky can. It can be done scientifically, with the proper energy sources, though these usually don't shut down everything like a spirit's time-jump does."

"Spirits?" That word ran through Shadow with a chill. "What about spirits?"

North smiled again. Shadow was beginning to hate it when she saw him do that.

"Just go to the Holiday Inn and you'll see," he told her.

"Robert..." she said with a wary voice.

He came over and held her by the shoulders and nudged her. "Don't worry. I think you'll be overjoyed by the time this is all over tomorrow morning."

Shadow was about to let North have a good chunk of her mind when he was called to the secure room. But before he left, he kissed her on the forehead.

She stood and watched him as he left the lab. Damn scientists!

It was an hour later and Shadow found herself in a dark room beside the Honeymoon Suite of the Vermilion Holiday Inn. What was so important about all this? As North had said, he had started to set up a monitoring post in this closet next door – he hadn't said it needed completion! She quietly entered the suite and planted the disks and then stashed herself back in this maintenance room next door and waited. She sat back and stewed.

As the hours passed she had time to think of what she was doing. She remembered the cameras that Bucky had found in her room back at the Café, and how she felt about them then. This was wrong...

"Ah, Robert has a person here. Good."

Shadow snapped about. A woman was standing at the sink in the back of the room. She was dressed in an all white sash-like dress, and she had the most remarkable head of deep purple hair. She turned and looked at Shadow, revealing bright green eyes and a soft face that showed a slight trace of sadness. On her shoulder, holding a part of the sash up was a golden pin. It showed a PokéBall with a pair of white feathers over top it.

Shadow stared at the lady, at first just at the sight of her. She then realized that she was illuminating the dark room by her presence. And there was something else - There was something familiar about this person.

"Err, ah, this isn't what..." she stuttered.

The lady raised a hand. "Don't worry. I'm here to do the same. You'll need help anyway, if I know these subjects correctly." Her voice was deep, kind and gentle.

"Wha... why are you here?" Shadow stammered.

She smiled. Uh oh, another smiler...

"I'm here to check on my pupil," she replied. "He should arrive sometime around eleven in the morning... ah. Here comes our first subjects..."

Shadow looked back at her monitor and hit the scanning disk's remote record button as the door to the Suite flung open by the kick of a small foot.

"Fer some dead people, where'd you's get all dis luggage!?" Meowth cried from under a bundle of suitcases.

"Meowth?" Shadow asked. "I haven't seen him in almost… What's he doing... oh my..."

Two figures entered the room that she never thought she would see ever again. But there they were - Jesse and James! James was decked out in some strange tuxedo outfit. He carried Jesse into the room and started dancing about… as if they had been just... married?

"What? What is all this? They died! They're DEAD!" Shadow cried and pointed at the monitor.

"That is correct," the lady quietly said. "These are their spirits."

Shadow could not take her eyes off the monitor. Sforzie would be having a fit if she could see this! Spirits? North had been right again. She reached down and turned on her little box.

"Good idea. I should be ready as well," the lady beside her said. Shadow glanced up and saw her close her eyes and concentrate for a moment. She saw the lady flash slightly. What was with Mya...

"Myamoto!" Shadow yelped as she covered her mouth in shock. The huge portrait that hung at the entrance of the Silph Building/Team Rocket Headquarters - THAT was where she had seen her face before!

She smiled at Shadowcat. "I see my replacement is well versed in Team Rocket lore," she said. She then returned to looking at the monitor. "My, how she's grown..."

Shadow didn't know which to watch. Her friends that she thought she had lost or the woman examining her monitor.

"Replacement?" she asked the woman. "What do you mean 'replacement?' Replacement for what?"

Myamoto looked at the confused cat-human. "Robert gave you your dossier, didn't he?"

Shadow nodded. "I haven't looked at it though..."

Myamoto shook her head. "Ah... then you haven't seen the Giovanni's performance report on you then... interesting..."

Shadow sat back and glared at the legend before her. "My performance report? What about my performance report?"

Mya reached down and produced a sheet of paper and began to read off it. "In your last report, he said 'I consider Shadowcat one of the ten best agents in Team Rocket - Almost as good... erm..." She handed the paper to Shadow. She looked at the chicken scrawl that she recognized as Giovanni's handwriting, such as it was.

'Almost as good as my dear Mya...'

"Rubbish!" Shadow said as she got a queasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. "He's always threatening to send me to the Slice and Dice boys if I don't cooperate!"

Myamoto nodded in agreement. "Fear is a great persuader... he always used the same fear of removing our daughter..." Shadow watched her touch the screen of the monitor above the happy and smiling face of Jesse.

"Jesse's your DAUGHTER!?" Shadow gasped. "OUR!? GIOVANNI WAS HER FATHER!?"

Shadow found a hand over her mouth, while on the monitor Jesse asked "Did you hear something?"

What she heard was a knocking on the door. Meowth answered it.

"Yesss? Da honeymoon's just startin' in here's! Hey kid! Long time no see!"

"M-Meowth! Is... is it true?"

Shadow knew that voice. Even with Mya's hand over her mouth, she still spun a trackball around, rotating the view of the monitor to the other side of the door. Sure enough, Mondo was standing there.

"How'd... how did the Boss know about these two?" Shadow said through Mya's hand gag.

"They had a rendezvous at the Team Rocket Memorial," she replied as she took her hand away. "Giovanni has cameras all over that place. I'm sure he knew everything that went on there..."

Shadow returned to the monitor. "What DID go on?"

Mya laughed. "They got married, the fools."

Shadow blinked. "But… they're dead!"

Mya looked at her. "So? They still love each other."

Shadow spat a laugh. "Considering the size of the frying pan Jesse would whack him with, she must have cared dearly for James..."

Mya and Shadow sat and giggled at that statement. Shadow returned to watching the events before her on the monitor. Mondo was hugging Jesse and sobbing.

"Excuse me sir, but that's my wife you're crying on," James said, tapping the young Rocket on the shoulder. Mondo looked up at James and changed crying shoulders to his.

"This could get quite soggy," Shadow said.

Mya cocked her head. "Umm, he reminds me of Hazugawa... a gopher we had back when I was starting with the Rockets... I think he had a crush on me..."

Shadow nodded as she watched Mondo. "Guaranteed here. He's outright stated his reverence for Jesse... And he thought James was the best Rocket on the planet. He sure took their deaths badly. It took us nearly three months to dry him out."

Mya closed her eyes and smiled. "Humm… I'll have to look old Hazzy up... 'See how he's doing."

Shadow thought a moment. "The only Hazugawa I know of is the leader of the TS. He's been around for years!"

Mya peered over at Shadow. "I'm no spring Pidgy, dear."

Shadow shrunk back. "Sorry."

Mya shrugged. They returned to the screen.

"When the boss gave me this assignment, I couldn't believe it," Mondo was crying nearly out of breath. "How? How are you two still alive? I carried your caskets! Were you undercover or something?"

Meowth sneered. "You's don't wanna know kid. It's kinda confusin' even fer me, an' I was d'ere all da ways!"

"You know, there's a question I'm going to have to ask North when I see him next..." Shadow said.

"What's that?" Mya asked.

"He once told me that he kept me safe during some of my missions without my knowing it... I wonder why he couldn't do the same for Jesse and James?"

Mya looked at her daughter on the monitor. "We were thinking that he may have been protecting them as well..."

Shadow nodded. "Considering the number of times they had a run in with the Twerp's Pikachu..." Shadow stopped when she saw the look she was getting from Mya.

"Continue..." Mya said with a bit of snarl thrown into her voice. What? Twerp? You too?

"Er... I mean... what happened to that protection? Why did Jesse die from a simple auto accident, when she and the others were dropped from altitude many times, yet only came out bruised?"

Myamoto sighed. "I know why..."

Shadow looked at the spirit of Myamoto. "And?"

Mya shook her head, which she had down on her chest, a sparkle of tears dropping away from her nose.

"She's not at liberty to say. Regulations, you know..." a voice said from behind them - It was getting crowded in that closet.

Shadow and Mya looked back at the sink again. This time, a sizable Pikachu was standing there. Shadow sat in disbelief at how large it was and the odd eye-patch it wore over its left eye.

"Are the love-birds here?" he asked.

"Is THAT Pikachu Ketchum?" Shadow answered the question with.

Mya laughed at Shadow's expression in her voice. "Yes, that's our PK... Yes PK, they just arrived. But you'll have to wait. Mondo is in with them."

"That's okay," the extra large Pikachu said as he floated over to the monitor. "I have to wait for MY crew to get closer anyway. I just had to explain to a Charizard the facts of life."

"PK..." Mya scolded the Pikachu.

The large Pikachu held up his paws and shook his head. "Hey, this mission is too important. We can't have him torching his trainer all the time, especially if he's going to be riding him."

"Ash Ketchum is RIDING his Charizard? In HIS condition?" Shadow asked bluntly. She then was sorry she said anything as she suddenly had a large yellow critter charging towards her.

"You've seen Ash?" he asked her. "How is he? They haven't allowed me to see him."

Shadow sat back in her seat and waved her hands about to the approaching Pikachu. "I haven't seen him in almost a year... and that was when he was in the hospital after James was killed."

PK glided back with his head down. "I'm sorry," he sighed, "it's just been such a long time..."

Mya scratch the yellow head. "You've been through much as well, PK. And you came through with flying colors. Did you receive your mark?"

PK looked up at his teacher. "Yes ma'am," he said, almost like a little school boy.

"May I see it?" Mya asked.

PK glanced at Shadowcat. She was sitting, watching, with her arms crossed. "Go ahead, let's see it," she said without knowing what 'it' was.

PK's eye lit up. "You're the one working with my brother, aren't you?" he asked. "Did he... umm… you know..." he added while flapping his arms then twirling his right paw over his head.

Shadow snickered. "Professor North had him show me earlier, so I know what you are."

PK gave Shadow a stern look. "Fine, but if you run into them," he said as he pointed at the monitor, "you are NOT TO tell them! Understood?"

Shadow was about to give the mouse a piece of her mind when she saw the look Myamoto was giving her. He meant it, and so did she. Shadow nodded yes and sat quietly waiting the show.

PK moved aside then tucked into a ball of glowing yellow. He grew twice his previous size. A helmet appeared on his head, followed by shoulder and chest armor, gauntlets, leg armor, and finally, a huge pair of wings with and a halo. He unfurled himself. He reached up above himself and pulled a large sword out of sub-space. Shadow found herself needing to duck under the large left wing as PK folded it first, then the right. It looked a bit odd, as he remained floating. Mya waved him closer.

"Wow... I'm not sure I want to know what all that battle-armor is for..." Shadow said, gawking at the bedecked Pikachu.

"We are about to go through some real nasty stuff, ma'am," he said as Mya held his chin to examine the helmet.

"Good, you received your Goddess Seal," she said. "You are now officially an Archangel, 3rd class." She looked down at the chest plate. "That's wrong, though..."

PK looked down at the symbol there – it was the same PokéBall and feathers Mya wore.

"That will change when I officially take charge of those two," he said. "I like the new sword..."

Mya took it from him, and examined it. "Interesting... She marked it as well."

"She's a nice lady... her sisters are a piece of work though..." he said while glancing at the monitor behind Mya.

"T'anks kid... we'll see yas soon..." Meowth was saying as he escorted Mondo to the door. The cat let the young Rocket out, closed it behind him then examined the telegram he had delivered to them.

"Dis is from Miss Shard's desk... Dat means dis is Official oiders," he mumbled. "How'd da boss know about you's two?"

PK nodded. "That's my cue to get into position... ladies, it's been a pleasure. Mya, I thank you for your tutelage," he said, taking back his sword then reverting back to his base mode. "Miss Shadow, keep Bucky from tearing up Mr. North's lab, please?" With that, he vanished.

Meowth had torn the envelope open and whisked the paper it contained out in a single stroke of his claws. He unfurled it and read it aloud.

"From da Boss' desk - Attention all Rockets. It has come to my attention dat some members of Team Rocket are... SLACKING and SHIRKING D'ERE DUTIES!?"

Jesse and James leaned over the bed at the cat as he read. James had finally reverted to his Rocket uniform. Shadow looked at the monitor with a bit of a quirky expression. What did he expect to do in those?

Meowth continued. "All Team Rocket Members, be dey LIVIN' or DEAD..." - He gave Jesse and James a quick glance – "WILL continue d'ere assigned projects until completion!"

"Well, that should be interesting," James said, half laughing. "Think we can scrounge up the ghost of Pikachu for the boss?"

Myamoto grabbed her mouth as she inhaled. Shadow looked about the room, just in case the large Pokémon that had just left was still gone. They did feel a slight rumbling around them.

Meowth looked at James in near disgust. "Ha ha! Just what we need – DAT rodent shokin' yer butt from here ta Celadon!" he cracked as he snapped the paper and continued. "Hey, get dis part! I expect Jesse and James ta report fer duty by MONDAY MORNING!" Meowth flipped the sheet in front of the spirits.

Shadow and Mya shook their heads at the monitor. "Same old Gio," they both said in unison then looked curiously at one another.

"I hope you's enjoy yer honeymoon!" the feline Pokémon griped. "Da boss really knows how ta ruin a perfectly good weekend!"

"Now Meowth!" Jesse said in her best put down voice. "We must ALWAYS do what the boss tells us to do, NO QUESTIONS ASKED!"

"But yer DEAD!" shrieked the cat.

"He's got a point there," Shadow noted.

"That's never stopped Team Rocket before!" James chimed then thought about what he DID just say. "Wait a minute..."

Shadow pinched her eyes. James sure hadn't changed.

James brooded while sitting on the edge of the bed. Meowth continued on without trying to figure James' last input.

"Speakin' of da boss..." Meowth chattered as he pointed at Jesse, "Just what DID you mean back at da memorial when you's called da boss..."

James started to look like a Psyduck with a migraine. "Oh, TIME OUT!"

Shadow felt the little box on her belt key on. The tingling sensation ran throughout her again, and she saw Meowth freeze in position. So, THAT'S what caused the event that happened earlier. She felt a bit un-nerved at the feeling of moving while the world didn't, even though she could hardly see it… the view from the monitor was that of the room only. She glanced at Myamoto, who gave her a reassuring smile. She may have just only met this woman, but having her there soothed many nerves.

The monitor flickered slightly. Shadow examined it to make sure it was working correctly.

"It may flicker from time to time while the time-out is running. Those field generators don't always work well with electronics," Mya said as she watched Shadow fiddle with the screen.

"If you say so," Shadow said, tapping the box on the back of the device. The flickering stopped as soon as she tapped it again.

Jesse was over by the outstretched frozen curtains in their room examining the stiff fabric.

"James, dear... What's going on here?" she asked in total confusion.

Mya couldn't stop the giggle that was rumbling through her. Seeing her daughter in a confused state like this was a bit hard to take.

"Huh? What?" was the response Jesse got from James. Oh, he was a big help.

Jesse waived her arms about, palms outstretched, as if this wild flopping of her appendages would tell James just what the question was.

"Oh, don't flap your arms like that, dear!" Mya said as Jesse waved her arms about. Shadow gave Mya a half laughing look.

"What?" James repeated.

"THIS!" she yelled with a hard gesture towards the stiff curtains.

"This? We're on our Honeymoon!"

Shadow fell off her stool.

"No no! Meowth's a statue! The pool is stuck! People in mid-jump! Curtains standing out like boards!" Jesse bellowed.

James smiled and nodded. "Oh, that! I jumped a time-line!"

Shadow returned to her stool. "This could get quite painful!" Mya just nodded as she watched the screen intensely.

"Didn't you watch Doctor Who when you were a kid?" James asked his wife.

"I didn't have a television when I was a kid! Mum-mum and I had to do without," Jesse said pouting a bit at yet another thought of her unfortunate youth. Mya looked away from the monitor with a frustrated expression on her face. If reminding Jesse of years gone by hurt, reminding Mya of those same years was excruciating.

James, the clod, kept bantering on. But Shadow wasn't listening to him. She had been around James enough to turn his yammering off in her mind if he started to wander off in his world of oddness. Her attention was now on the woman beside her. She had moved behind her and was leaning on a small workbench. She seemed to be crying.

"Hey," Shadow said worried for the woman. "Are you all right?"

Myamoto gave a pained smile and wiped a tear from her face. She looked over at the Rocket seated before her. Shadow could now see the years of pain and regret built up on her face and felt sorry for the spirit.

"I'm okay," Mya lied. She shook her head at the monitor. "I know this James... Jesse and he have been together for a long time now... but sometimes, he can be a total insensitive dolt!"

"You're speaking of men in general," Shadow cracked. "James doubly so." That brought a smile to Mya's face. She looked back at the floor, then the monitor again.

"Giovanni always kept me away too long from Jesse," she said. She held out her hand, and an image of a young Jesse appeared. Shadow watched it rotate in Mya's hand, the image giggling and happy, despite the obvious old clothes the child wore. She jumped and leapt, playing within the unseen space of Mya's palm.

"I always wanted her to be better off... my princess," Mya said, as the image morphed to an imagined picture of Jesse in a gown and tiara. "But Giovanni knew me too well. He knew I would take any assignments he sent me. He knew I wouldn't refuse. He'd take Jesse away if I did..."

Shadow watched the dancing Jesse Princess image fade from Mya's hand.

"And, in the end, he did take her away anyway. He sent me on that final mission, and I lost my Jesse." Mya closed her hand, and bowed her head again.

"Why don't you just go see her then?" Shadow asked.

"I'm not allowed," Myamoto said as she wept quietly.

Shadow felt immense remorse for Myamoto. She reached out to touch her on the arm, to reassure her that all was not lost, but suddenly she felt the tingling the field generator increase dramatically!

"OH!" they both shouted, the sudden zap unexpectedly sparking between them.

James, who was lying back on the bed, was now sitting upright, looking at the walls in a slight panic. Jesse, who had joined him on the bed, landed flat on her face in the pillow.

"Did you hear that?" James said in a startled state.

Jesse pulled herself out of the pillow. "Hey!" she yelled.

"Huh?" James could only muster at first. He looked back at Jesse. "Oh, Jesse! I'm so sorry! It's just that I thought I heard something!"

Jesse didn't understand at first. "So? What if you did?" she questioned.

"Jess, we're out of the time-line!" he shivered. "Nothing moves - Nothing makes a sound!"

Jesse thought about this for a moment. It actually made sense! She nodded an agreement, but then added "Well, I didn't hear anything."

PK stuck his head into the closet and looked at Shadow and Mya. Shadow was shaking her hand, and Mya was rubbing her arm.

"Well, I sure heard something!" he whispered at the ladies. "Hey you two, I'M the one that's suppose to be haunting these two, not YOU!"

"Sorry PK," Mya said, rubbing her shoulder. "Shadowcat's field generator isn't set to my frequency."

The Pikachu looked at the two of them, shook his head, and retreated back out of the wall. Shadow started to giggle, which soon became a laugh. Mya watched her, and soon joined in.

"Did you hear laughing?" James asked on the monitor. Jesse only sighed.

Nearly 2 hours passed silently in the closet. But something was keeping James bouncing in the next room. He would look up every few minutes some sound breaking the mood that Jesse was so wishing would come, but kept being interrupted. Shadow tried turning up the audio, but Mya didn't want to hear those two attempting to make out, and personally Shadow agreed with her.

Finally, the sound was audible at regular levels. Shadow cocked her ear at it.

"oooooOOooo!"

"There it is again!" James said in the darkened room.

Jesse could be seen getting up on her elbows, a typical angry look on her face.

"James - - DEAR..." she said through gritted teeth, "You're the one who showed me how to jump time-lines in this form. There shouldn't be a sound around anywhere!"

"But Jesse!" James pleaded, "You know I don't want this any more than you do! It's our honeymoon night for crying out loud!" James was starting to blubber.

"James! Snap out of it!" she answered him, adding a few swats of her hand across his face, and making Shadow wince each time. "Now, how can I alleviate this situation?"

Shadow smirked. Myamoto saw this and looked at her confused.

"Good old Jesse, the take-charge lady!" Shadow laughed. Mya grinned.

James was panting hard from Jesse's 'calming' face slaps. "Just lie back down and close your eyes. Listen hard. See if you can hear what I'm hearing!"

"See if you can hear... yes dear!" she mumbled as she laid back down. She stared at the ceiling for a moment then closed her eyes.

"Okay, PK should be making his appearance shortly," Mya said, moving closer to the monitor. Shadow adjusted the lighting controls to illuminate the image of the room better.

Jesse concentrated. She really tried. But all she got was a slight rumbling from James.

"You're not asleep, are you!?" she barked.

"No, asthma! I always had a touch of it when I was nervous!"

Shadow dropped her head to the table in front of her. Mya looked at the ceiling in disbelief.

"YOU'RE A GHOST JAMES!! GHOSTS DON'T HAVE ASTHMA!" Jesse shouted from the monitor and shook the walls.

"Sorry," he sheepishly responded. "Lets try again, please?" His pleading hit Jesse. He really was desperate.

"Okay," she said, calming down, falling back again, and once again, trying to hear James' unknown sound.

"There!" came from James.

"Humm?" Jesse listened. There was something...

Shadow's ears were twitching. "What the heck is Pikachu doing?" Mya shook her head.

"oooooooou! ooooou! ooooOOoooooOOOooooh!"

"James! I hear it!" Jesse exclaimed with her eyes still clamped shut. James nodded, but since his eyes were shut as well, little was seen between the two of them.

"PK..." Myamoto said, shaking her head.

"oooooOoooOoooOOOOOoooooooH!"

"I told you I heard something!" James said with a little excitement in his voice.

"You're right! But what is it?" Jesse asked.

"It's a yellow electric rat!" Shadow whispered to the monitor. Mya stifled a near outburst of laughter.

'OOOooooooooOOoOOoooOOH are you two a sight!"

"What did he just say?" Mya asked. "What!?"

Jesse and James both froze. James grabbed Jesse's right hand with his left and squeezed hard. They both took their remaining hands and dug into the mattress of the bed.

"You can both open your eyes! I'm not gonna hurt you!" the squeaky voice said.

"There!" Shadow exclaimed while pointing at the monitor. "Oh, look at where he is!"

"PIKACHU KETCHUM!" Myamoto snarled at the screen as her eyes flew wide. Then she started to laugh. "He was always a prankster, the imp..."

Suddenly Jesse heard James exclaim "YOU!" She opened her eyes and looked up - uh - down... down at her belly.

Straddling the two Team Rocket spirits, standing on their bellies, was PK.

Jesse screamed.

A wind arose within the room. The vortex swirled around, even though all objects were still stuck in position by the time-line jump.

It was slightly surreal to Shadow. There was obviously a torrent of wind in the next room, she could hear it. But since everything was timed out, the only way to know that there was any gusts there was by seeing Jesse's, James' and Pikachu's hair whip about. But then she saw the wind lift PK off Jesse and James' and he flew about the room.

"If he hits Meowth, that room will be in shambles!" Myamoto said, raising her hands before herself and concentrating hard.

"What are you doing?" Shadow asked. But before Mya could answer, PK touched the stasis-stung chatty cat!

THTHTHTHUDDD! The time-jump ended, and normal physics once again took precedence. Mya's hands glowed as she held the wall. Shadow felt the air pressure pop her ears, and the wall groaned from the exertion of the air pressure against it. Mya redirected the energy towards the far wall. The French Doors and a good chunk of the wall burst away.

"This is going to be expensive!" Shadow yelled, the roar of the banshee's wail still ringing through the closet.

"Easy fix!" Mya called out as she continued to hold the walls up. "Watch PK... he'll make it all better..."

James tried to calm his wife. Pikachu simply got control of himself and floated out the storm.

Jesse scrambled off what was left of the bed. "Time out, James! Time out!" she yelled.

"Oh, time out has already been done," PK said, landing in front of the pair.

Shadow felt the tingling again. PK must have timed-out the area again. But then she saw movement near the rodent.

"Oh, my achin' charm!" Meowth said from under some of the shards of what had once been the room's bureau. He then got an eyeful...

"Pika, y'all!"

"OH MY GAWD!! IT'S DA PIKACHU!!! HE'S HERE TO GET HIS REVENGE!!" the hysterical cat bellowed.

Shadow looked at the moving Meowth. "How'd he do that?" she asked.

Myamoto was breathing hard after releasing her shield from the wall. "We're a bit more advanced than James is when it comes to working time-outs. PK is being selective with his time-jumping..."

"Selective..." Shadow said. "Interesting…"

Pikachu then waved a finger. "Now, let's fix this mess!"

The two humans and cat Pokémon, as well as Shadow and Mya, watched as the wall components reversed course, and returned to where they came. Piece by piece, section by section, it reassembled itself into a perfectly painted doorway wall.

"Humm, I'll have to ask Bucky if he can do that for my bedroom!" Shadow laughed.

"Your bedroom has been hit by a hurricane?" Mya asked as she shook her hands trying to cool them off.

The furniture in the room fell back into their original positions, fully intact and unscratched. Jesse, James and Meowth stood in awe as PK floated back into the suite with a simple smile on his face.

"That's... That's amazing!" Jesse said. James only nodded.

"A simple case of selective time reversal!" PK said almost like a barker at a carnival. "Now... to the matter at hand..."

Jesse snapped out of the awed position she had been in. "No, YOU wait! Why can we understand you now? You're SPEAKING!"

PK stuck his nose up against Jesse's. "Well duh! I'M DEAD! YOU'RE DEAD! We're ALL dead! - Well, all except Meowth here, and he could understand me even when I was still on his plane!"

Shadow shook her head. "I feel like we're on Mystery Science Theater..." she said, then remembered the fact that Myamoto never had a television.

James too had finally come out of his awed stupor. "Just THINK what the boss will give us if we present him with a SPEAKING Pikachu!" He lunged and grabbed PK.

"Oh no!" Mya gasped. "Hold it back, PK, HOLD IT BACK..."

The lightning that struck Jesse and James felt ten times worse than it had ever felt before. Both were ejected across the room into a heap that slammed the wall between the suite and the workroom Shadow and Mya were in. Shadow had to grab the monitor so it did not fall over.

"He didn't hold it back," Shadow said as they heard the two bodies slide to the ground. Mya nodded with her hand over her face.

"You two never learn! Zapdos help us all!" the Pikachu snarled. "Do you think I want to do this?! The LAST thing I wanted was to be with YOU TWO!"

"Temper, PK… Hold your temper," Mya said as she began to nervously nibble at her nails.

"Wh - why did-d-d that h-h-hurt so much this time?" James managed to whimper.

Meowth looked at the heap on the floor. The lightning had passed right through him without a tingle. "I don'no about you's two, but I've never felt better!" he smiled.

"Because I don't have a BODY anymore! I'm almost PURE ENERGY!" PK growled as he landed on the floor in front of James.

Myamoto watched Jesse and James stumble back to their feet. "You wouldn't believe me how many times I've seen those two in that position..."

Shadow looked at Mya. "I thought you said you weren't allowed to contact them..."

She smiled. "I'm not. But they never said I couldn't watch over them from time to time."

Shadow thought about this. "Wouldn't that mean you would have seen whatever it was that protected them?"

Myamoto cocked her head and looked at Shadow. She smiled. "You'd think so, wouldn't you? Especially someone in my condition… But, no, I never saw what it was, but I knew it was there, and I knew what it was."

Shadow gave a look to Myamoto. "And?"

"I felt ghosts," she said. "When you see Robert, ask him... Ask him about Winkin, Blinkin and Nodd."

Shadow's eyes grew. "Winkin, Blinkin and Nodd? And these are?"

Mya just stood back and looked down at Shadow. "Just ask him. I'm sure he'll tell you."

Suddenly, it was getting loud in the next room.

"This is our HONEYMOON, you yellow peril!" shouted an angry James, much to everyone's surprise. "WHY are YOU making this a holy HELL!?"

Mya coughed and laughed at the reference of their host. Well, almost a _holy_ hell...

"Hey!" the electric mouse growled, "I'M being punished here too!"

"He is?" Shadow asked.

"Oh, you're taking the blame for all of this?" James sneered.

"YES I AM!!" yelled PK right back, electric sparks flying from his cheeks. "If it wasn't for my jumping out of that bush back in Pallet, we'd ALL not be here right now! As it is, we're stuck with one another!"

James was about to launch another tirade when Meowth intervened. "Wait a minute James! What do's you mean 'stuck wit' one another'... An' what's wit' da eye-patch?" Meowth added.

Shadow had seen the patch earlier but hadn't brought it up. It had been odd enough to see an angel Pikachu, but a one-eyed angel was even stranger. Then there was the battle gear. She spun the scanner to face PK. He looked down and gave a slight laugh.

"This is what caused this entire episode!" he said. "This is what that Spearow did to me that caused me to jump out of that bush!"

Myamoto sighed. "I'm sorry, PK," she mumbled.

"You've got to be careful around me, ma'am," Shadow said, watching the monitor.

Myamoto looked up at her. "Excuse me?"

"It's these cat's ears," Shadow said. "They hear even the slightest sound..." To prove her point, Shadow twisted her left ear and pointed it at Mya.

"Well..." she started to say.

"But you're not at liberty to say," Shadow interrupted her then smiled. It obviously was a touchy subject, and Shadow didn't want to press it, especially at that moment as much was happening in the next room.

"Teach us?" asked the threesome on the monitor. "Teach us what?"

"Skills, people! Survival skills - battle techniques - the lot!" PK said as he planted his little fists into his big wide hips and made like a coach. "We have to prepare for the upcoming battle, and we're gonna need all the 'bodies' we can muster!"

Again, the threesome looked at one another then said in unison "What battle?"

PK snorted. "Lugia..."

Shadow watched the reaction of her three friends. Jesse and James just look more confused. But Meowth had fallen to his knees and was yammering about the end of the world.

"What's with those three? They had possibly the closest run in with Lugia that anyone in Team Rocket could have! They act like they've never seen it before..."

Myamoto looked closely at the monitor with concern. "You're right... look at Meowth..."

Shadow spun a trackball, and pushed on a joystick. The image zoomed in on Meowth, and brought up his audio.

"It's da end of da woild! It's da end of da woild! It's da end of da woild!" he mumbled, a slight crazed look on his face.

Shadow and Mya looked at one another. Why was he acting like this?

There was a thud from the balcony. Shadow returned the view to normal.

Jesse opened the drapes to the French Doors, and was greeted by the steaming breath of a Charizard. Shadow zoomed in the scanner. She could see a pair of legs on either side of the dragon's neck.

"Hey Jesse! How's the honeymoon goin'?" asked the rider. Shadow recognized the deeper, slightly broken voice of Ash Ketchum. Sure enough, PK had been right. The former temperamental Charizard was allowing his young trainer to ride him. It was an interesting sight for Shadow. When she had last seen the Ketchum boy, he was a broken teenager with little hope of the future. Then she saw his face... and broke out laughing.

Myamoto gave Shadow a perplexed look. "What?" she asked the giggling Rocket.

"He looks like a scruffy cousin of mine from back home! HA!"

Mya looked at the fuzzy face on the monitor and nodded. "He really should shave... what is it with boys at that age?"

"It would be more of a laugh if he hadn't attempted to capture me a few times..." Shadow said turning the laughter she had been doing to a slight growl.

"Capture?"

Shadow sat back and crossed her arms. She looked at the ceiling and started counting with her right hand. "At least... umm... 3 times," she said, thinking back. "I could never get him to realize I wasn't a Pokémon. Even his companions couldn't get him to listen..."

Mya smiled and shook her head. "Sometimes it's easier to get a Snorlax to listen to you than a young boy."

"A Snorlax could at least roll over and squish that boy!" Shadow grumbled.

Mya laughed. On the monitor, Ash had PK in a semi-crushing grasp, and both were crying. Mya wiped away a tear. Shadow cocked her head. It was getting a touch soapy in the next room.

"Ash need Pikachu!" was heard over the monitor's speaker.

"Uh oh," Shadow noted. "Charizard just spoke... I wonder how those two..."

"Ch - Ch - Charizard TALKED!?" James stammered.

"Well, I guess that answers my question..." Shadow said feeling a sweat drop roll off her brow and watching James overreact again.

"Oh, that's because of me..." PK said from Ash's hug. "While I'm around, you'll be able to understand Ash's Pokémon. Yours as well, but I'm not too sure how well they'll communicate."

"Oh, how convenient," James complained. "Jesse, get hold of yourself! This is STILL the enemy! And YOU Meowth... What are you praying about!?"

"It's da end of da woild as we know it!" yelled the cat Pokémon. "Yahahahahaaa!"

Myamoto looked closer at the monitor. Shadow noticed as well.

"They're still acting as if they don't know who Lugia is, right?" she asked her senior.

Myamoto stroked her chin and nodded. "Why are they acting this way? They should know about Lugia... why have they forgotten?" She looked at Shadow. She then glanced skywards then back. She a slight devilish smile crossed her face. "Let's find out, shall we?"

Shadow gave Mya a confused look. "And how should we do that?" she asked.

"First, turn this to automatic," Mya said, tapping the monitor.

Shadow shrugged and complied, switching all recording devices to automatic. "Okay, now what?" she asked.

Myamoto smiled and pointed at Shadow's little box on her belt. "Now, turn off your generator... I'll control the time-flow for both of us from this point on."

Shadow flicked the switch to the little box. Everything was still moving, so she guessed all was well. She looked up and found Mya's hand in front of her.

"Let's go!" the Rocket legend said.

Shadow looked at the white glove. "I feel like I'm in 'A Christmas Carol'," she laughed, taking the hand given her.

Mya smiled. "Then I'll be all three spirits... Right now, I'm the ghost of Christmas Past... let's go!"

The room vanished. Shadow felt a bit confused at first, but then decided to just go with the flow.

The next thing she knew, she was standing on an ice field with a series of jagged rocky volcanic looking mountains around her and Mya.

Suddenly, the ice rumbled all around, and a red glow was approaching from behind them. She turned about to see what was coming, and wish she hadn't.

Articuno was diving out of the sky, turning to the right of them. Behind the bird was a stream of fire! Moltres was blasting the ice field behind the god of ice. And the fire was coming right for them!

oOo

Characters from Pokémon ©2000, 07 The Pokémon Company/Nintendo/Creatures/GameFreak  
"The Observers" ©2000-03, 05, 07 Denivan Media Services - Used with Permission  
"Terminal Solutions" ©2000-03, 05, 07 Steve Brunton - Used with Permission  
Angel Myamoto ©2000-03, 05, 07 C. Ruester-TiredGamer/Brightblade Productions-Used with Permission  
Doctor Who ©2000, 07 The British Broadcasting Corporation  
Reference to Ah! My Goddess ©2000, 07 Kosuke Fujishima/Kodansha  
Shadowcat (Shadsie, Shadow), Aslanti the Pyrlion, Baka the Bakagoat ©2000-03, 05, 07 S. E. Nordwall – Used with Permission

©2000-03, 05, 07 S. E. Nordwall/R. A. Stott - The Lugia Project II/DMS

Edited 0501.30, 0707.04


	6. Shadow Memories

Originally Published Winter 2001  
First Published on FFN: 03/23/03  
Original FFN #1280256/6

**A F T E R ¤ C H R O N I C L E S  
Y E A R ¤ O F ¤ T H E ¤ C A T**

**By R. A. Stott**

_Based on characters by S. E. Nordwall and R. A. Stott  
With References to Steve Brunton's "Terminal Solutions"  
&  
C. Ruester's (TiredGamer) "Fate's Game"  
and a passing note to the works of Kosuke Fujishima_

**Chapter Six**

**Shadow Memories**

"Hold that thought..."

Myamoto waved her hand, and the Articuno that was diving on them stopped in mid air. The Moltres looked as if it were stuck to the ice by a spear of fire. Shadow stepped onto a melted section of the surface and held her hand up to the pillar.

"Odd... no heat..."

She tapped a finger to it. The surface was warm, but still there was no great amount of heat. It was very peculiar.

Rivulets of fire cascaded off to one side of the tower of flame in a drape of red and orange jewels. She reached up and snapped one off. She looked over at Mya, and showed her the glass-like structure.

"I wouldn't want to be holding that when time is restored," she said with a chuckle. "This way..."

They walked across the surface of the ocean. The frozen areas were a touch slippery to step on, but manageable. Shadow found that it was where actual water was that it was truly slick as ice.

Shadow looked off to the left. A Charizard was hanging in the air. There was a tow rope trailing behind it, and the Twerp...

"Excuse me?"

Shadow smiled at Myamoto's barb. She knew what she was thinking then.

"So... this was the great emerging of Lugia?"

"Umm... there he is." Shadow followed Myamoto's pointing finger until she saw the subject it was directed at.

"Oh... my..."

The silvery white body of the water god stood still against the gray turbulent sky, its wings stretched out in a controlled glide. It looked almost as if he had been painted there.

"Wow... this is... wow!" Shadow exclaimed.

Mya smiled, as she continued over the blocks of ice. She finally got tired of nearly slipping and smacking her face - she was an angel, after all...

"Whoa!" Shadow yelped, as she found herself floating over the field of ice. She looked over at Mya and saw that she was in the air as well.

"It's easier this way," she said, and headed off towards a large island.

"So... just what are we doing here?" Shadow finally asked as they headed down for a landing.

"We are here to find out why Jesse and James forgot something as important as Lugia... Ah, there they are!"

Shadow looked down. "What in the world is THAT thing?"

The inflatable life raft sat against the ice, its outboard motor having been inverted, and a helicopter's stabilizer fan added to it. It showed great speed, even frozen in time as it was. Jesse, James and Meowth were sitting gleefully in the bed of the boat, obviously heading for the Twer...

"What did I say?"

Shadow blinked at Mya. "How come you always know when I'm thinking the 'T' word?"

Myamoto gave Shadow a typical Jesse laugh as she held the back of her hand up to her face. "Your ears twitch!"

They landed beside the craft. Myamoto sighed at the sight.

"I'm glad they learned something in Team Rocket... crafting that was inspired..."

Shadow looked at the jury-rigging. "Looks like something Robert would have in his lab..."

"It's not surprising… He taught them," Mya said.

Shadow looked at the machine again. "Umm... that would explain a few things..." She heard Mya laugh slightly. She glanced over at her and found her… blushing?

"Robert took it upon himself to make sure they were always prepared... especially Jesse..." she said, looking at her daughter. She reached down to touch her on the head, but then pulled her hand back.

"Go ahead," Shadow suggested.

"I mustn't... you remember what happen when PK touched Meowth..." She bid Shadow to step back with her, and released the hold on time. The boat launched itself into the icy world, leaving the pair behind.

"I do not sense it here... the reason for their lack of knowledge of Lugia does not start here..."

Shadow sat on a chunk of protruding ice. "So, where to now?" she asked.

Myamoto scanned the horizon. She then looked up at the sky, took a breath, and then looked down on the lady cat.

"We go upstairs," she said, and held out her hand.

Shadow looked in the direction Mya had been looking in. "Upstairs?"

"Trust me."

Shadow blew some air that flicked a stray blond hair away from her face. "Oookay..." she said. She placed her hand into Mya's glove and the world of ice vanished. It was replaced... by the über future.

A series of ultra modern buildings rose up in front of them, the nearest one rearing overhead. Shadow looked behind her and found a set of silo shaped towers. Opposite, there was a massive domed stadium-like structure. But what really got her attention were the long multi-leveled plates that stretched out away from the buildings, and what was floating above them.

"Section forty-two, standby... Forrestal landing on pad two... All stations, standby..." a public address system squawked.

"Automatic leveling system activated – thrust vectoring baffles to red/green," a second voice intoned. Shadow looked up and stared.

A massive silver-gray object was descending to their left, heading for the middle plate. Shadow couldn't help but notice that the thing simply kept getting bigger! She took a step back, but found herself held by Mya's hand on her shoulder.

"No... We are safe... watch."

Shadow glanced at Myamoto. She seemed to be enjoying this. She returned her gaze to the building that was landing on them.

Underneath, she could now read 'U.N.S. FORRESTAL' in a blocky military script, and a running number 'F2-662' - This was a ship? A _STAR_Ship? It then dawned to her that this must be one of the vessels referred to by the lady in the video she had watched back in her room a few weeks ago!

"Underbellies at station-keeping - deploying landing struts..."

The ship held itself up briefly as a trio of doors slid open, and three long fat rods dropped from under her belly. As they extended, a pair of 'toes' swung down from hinges front and rear on the base of the struts, then another pair slid out from side storage shunts, making for a large 4-toed foot pad on each. With a sizable clanking sound, the three units locked into position. Then the three feet sections dropped further, their chrome piston shafts gleaming in the bright lights of this strange place.

"Standby... underbellies to minus ten power..."

The ship continued her decent. Shadow stood shocked by the sight, and impressed that she wasn't being swept away by some gale. The ship simply seemed to be hanging there without thrust.

The front single foot touched the surface first. Shadow watched as the ship pivoted on it slightly, then settled on the two remaining legs she could see further down the craft's hull.

"Well... that was... impressive..." Shadow said.

"Oh wait, she's not done yet."

Shadow looked around. That wasn't Myamoto. It was a deep gravelly voice behind them. She looked back and saw something - strange...

"All stations, standby... power down main underbellies..."

_**BIVVVVVVOOOOOOOOSHHHH!**_

The legs on the ship exhausted penned up air sacks, and the ship dropped down on them rather rapidly. Shadow ducked down instinctively, as the ship looked as if it was about to squash them!

_**THADDOOOOOOON!**_

The ship struck a set of stop rings on the struts, sending a pounding clatter through the landing pad. Shadow felt herself lift off the ground briefly.

She looked up. She was in a squat position. The strange... person (?)… was standing beside her, holding out a paw to help her up.

"Hello there... welcome to the Stratus League, ladies," he said.

"Kinza, it's good to see you again," Myamoto said as she bent down and gave the creature a hug.

Kinza? Shadow remembered Professor North talking about someone named Kinza. He had visited him when he was about to launch GORT. Shadow looked closely at the critter. His light gray fur and short burly build gave him the look of a cat mixed with a bear. But he also was in a uniform of sorts, so he looked official somehow.

"So, what brings Forrestal here?" Mya asked.

The strange bear-cat seemed excited. "She's here to report her findings on level 7...and she's got Exeter's findings from level 14. And hey, she's got a passenger..."

Mya looked up at the ship. "A passenger? From where?"

"Level 14... He was transferred from Exeter."

Mya nodded then looked down. She saw the look Shadow was giving the strange creature beside her.

"Oh, where are my manners," she apologized. "Shadow, this is Elb Kinza. Kinza, this is Shadowcat."

"A pleasure, ma'am," he politely said, shaking her hand. Then to Mya he asked out of the side of his mouth "Which level?"

"Prime," Mya said.

He nodded. "Ah! Rob's Shadowcat… What brings you two here?" he asked, as he started to walk towards the ship. Shadow looked at her hand that had been given back to her by the odd officer then to Myamoto as she followed him. She shrugged and did likewise.

Mya laughed. "Ever the security chief, aren't you, Kinza? We're here to see the President of the League."

Kinza looked back at them. "Sabi? She'll be here shortly. She wants to greet the passenger."

Mya nodded. "He must be very important."

Kinza sighed. "He's the last survivor of 14..."

Shadow stood alone for a moment. Why did that make her shiver so? Something about this gave her a worried feeling.

A yellow-gold tube dropped from the ship behind the front landing strut. As it touched the ground Shadow could see that it was semi-transparent. Some pod like shape dropped down through it. It reached the base and a door slid away.

Shadow stared and took a step back. A large gray creature from her nightmare arrival in these worlds stepped out of the tube with a pair of uniformed officers.

"Mya... is that… is that… a MewTwo?" Shadow asked with a shaking finger pointing at it. The creature was huge, and its eyes were... unreal.

"That is a MewTwo," she said with a touch of awe in her voice. "He's much larger than the one on Prime..."

Shadow had always kept quiet of her knowledge of the world of Pokémon. She feared, and rightly so, that if Giovanni knew just how much she really knew of the creatures, some of which this world had not seen yet, she would be subjected to some new experiment the twisted leader of the Rockets would have come up with to find out.

Shadow knew of the MewTwo Project, though back on the Prime Level it had only been spoken about as rumors. And to a point, it was a taboo subject as well. Giovanni had always quashed any mention of the subject when he overheard any talk about the Pokémon. It had become somewhat of an urban legend.

But to Shadow, the creature was something else. She felt a shiver run up her spine, as the memory of the night she arrived flashed through her mind again. North had said that the uniforms of the actual kidnappers only looked like the mythical MewTwo, but seeing this one before her only made her quake inside.

"Ah, that's why I didn't feel him..." Mya exclaimed. "He's wearing a Doorknob."

Shadow blinked, the specter of the nightmare popping in her mind like a balloon. She looked again at the creature and saw what Mya was referring to - it was an appropriate name for the device. It hung from the MewTwo's neck, was the color of brass, and resembled a door handle.

"What is that for?" Shadow asked while rubbing her head.

"Protection, for both the MewTwo and any psychics around here," Kinza noted. "Also, if he ever goes to the Prime, it will keep him from shorting out the MewTwo there as well, or at least that's the theory." Shadow only nodded, completely confused. As she shook her head, she noticed Mya looking skywards. She seemed to be hearing something again. These spirits – always hearing something in the air.

"I must depart," Mya whispered into Shadow's ear, "but only for a short while - I must... consult with my superiors..."

Shadow looked at the spirit then at the MewTwo. "Can't I come with you?"

Mya looked up. "Not where I have to go... yes ma'am, I'm coming," she finished, obviously talking to that someone Shadow could not see. "Something must be up," she added, returning her attention to Shadow. "Don't worry... Mr. Kinza will take good care of you while I'm away."

"No prob, ma'am... See you shortly," the Security Officer said cheerily with a quick salute.

Shadow looked over at the group just outside the ship, then back at Mya. She nodded a reluctant okay. She never liked being shunted off on others, especially at this moment. Mya smiled and vanished in a light flash.

The MewTwo was talking with one of the men he had come out of the lift with. He smiled then looked directly at Shadow as she returned her stare at him. The sight of those two huge violet-red eyes staring at her made her step back a bit.

"Hello," gently passed through her mind. She gasped slightly.

"Oh... my..." she said.

Kinza looked back at her. "Are you all right, ma'am?" he asked.

"He... he said hello to me..." Shadow said in a near whisper. She had never felt such a powerful psychic, and just how gentle he was. There was only a slight blip of something, but nothing violent. From the rumors she had heard about the MewTwo of the Prime, he was anything but friendly or gentle.

"I am not your MewTwo," the eyes said. "And I do wish to be your friend."

"That is good to know," a voice behind Shadow said, but she was too transfixed to look back.

"PRESIDENT ON LANDING DECK!" Kinza barked, coming to attention. The officer's shout woke Shadow from her trance. She noticed everyone else, save the MewTwo and one of the officers with him snapping to attention. The officer was extending a hand out to a woman who had just passed by her. She was dressed in regal red with a dark green cape. She held a long staff that had a PokéBall for its base, and a flame on top that swirled into a halo. Beside her was a Jenny who looked older to Shadow's eyes than any she had seen before.

"Kinza, who is that?" Shadow whispered into the ear of the security officer. "I feel I've seen her before."

Kinza looked back at Shadow with a slightly surprised look. He then smiled and whispered back, "Team Rocket Gym Leaders file #87-2..."

Shadow thought quickly. "87... 87... 87 is up there... in the R's or S's... Sabrina?" Shadow looked at the woman who was now talking with the MewTwo and the man in the uniform that had shaken her hand. She turned so Shadow could now see her face. "She's... much older than I thought she'd be..."

Kinza snickered. "This is Sabrina Natsumi many years in your future, Miss Shadow."

She looked at him. "How'd you know about the TRGL Files?"

He looked back at the group ahead of them and shrugged. "I'm a security officer... it's my job!"

Shadow shook her head. She then noticed that she was being approached.

"So, this is Miss Shadowcat," the President said as she stepped towards her. The man she had been talking with was behind her, as was the Jenny. Shadow noticed something odd about the officer - almost like she'd seen him before as well. Then he spoke.

"Yes, Rob speaks highly of you," he said. "Any friend of Captain North is a friend of mine."

The voice - it almost was the same as Robert's!

"Oh, pardon me," the President excused herself. "Where are my manners? Miss Shadow, this is the Captain of Forrestal, Roy Strom." She shook his presented hand. "And I believe you've met our friend here," Sabrina added, as the MewTwo stepped up as well.

"A pleasure," it spoke out loud. "You may call me M2. The Captain of Exeter seemed to think I needed a name that was different from the other MewTwos she has found. And I kind of like it."

The President nodded. "I understand that you are on a research mission," she asked.

"Err... yes," Shadow nervously answered. "It seems that the memories of the spirits of Jesse and James, plus the memory of Meowth on... umm... Prime is it? - have been altered... they have no knowledge of their meeting with Lugia."

"Yes, I remember," the President said while looking at the ground. "I should be there right about now finding out why - Or at least, my younger self should be doing so."

"Excuse me?" Shadow asked with a touch of confusion in her voice.

The President smiled and shook her head. "Since the time you and Mya left your post, PK searched for another to scan their memories and find what was blocking it. He came and found me."

Shadow looked shocked. "Madam, I am sorry... if I had known..."

Sabrina held her hand up. "Not to worry... another of those History Daggers I get dealt from time to time... But, I will ask you to make an actual search of the place where they were attacked and drained of their memories."

Shadow cocked her head. "You... want us to...ahemm... When would you like us to start?"

"Soon," she told her as she turned to head off with the Captain and M2. "But while you are here, please feel free to get a meal and rest as guest of the Stratus League. Besides, I believe you need to wait for Mya to return, and that sometimes can take a while."

Shadow looked up, searching the sky for where her friend had vanished to, hoping she was back from wherever she had gone. "But won't Rob wonder where I am?" she asked not really happy with the thought of being there with these new people by herself.

"Technically, you're out of time and space here," Kinza laughed. "From here, you could return to any time and place you would like, or communicate anywhere, as long as you're within the Stratus' one-hundred year window of opportunity."

The group started to head for the buildings. Shadow slowly followed behind. She wished Mya had not been called away, but there was little she could do about it. She found herself between the Jenny, whose age still bothered her, and Kinza.

"You know," she said to no one in particular, but mostly to the unseen spirit who had left her there, "when Mya said that we were going 'up there,' I thought she meant, well, you know... up there." She added a gesture pointing up.

Kinza noticed the gesture. "Why? Are you dead?" he asked with a small laugh.

"I'm beginning to feel out of the loop, is what I feel," she admitted. "What exactly is this place?"

Kinza blinked. "Hasn't Captain North told you about the Stratus League yet?"

Shadow looked at the ground, thinking of all the different ways she'd heard about the Stratus, the first coming from that tape she had watched all those months ago. "I've heard _of_ the Stratus, but have never been told much about it... it's inter-dimensional, right? And it was once a part of Team Rocket, but not the current Rocket, but the first Team Rocket?"

Kinza nodded. "Ah, you saw Caroline's overview - good..."

"Caroline?" Shadow asked. Kinza smiled.

"North had you watch that 'Operation: Team Rocket' report... that was put together by the Captain of Exeter, Forrestal's sister ship, Caroline Edwards - she's an old friend of mine." Kinza grabbed a door and let the ladies enter first.

"The Stratus indeed started out as a part of Team Rocket, but it is now much more than that," the Jenny said as they entered the Great Hall of the League's main building. The walls were covered in relief images of Pokémon, many of which Shadow recognized, but many more she did not.

"This outdoes Silph's," Shadow noted as she gawked about. "What did that tape say? Was reborn... was reborn after help from an outside source... that's what it said... who was this outside source?"

The Jenny looked away. Kinza was looking at the ceiling.

"Not going to tell me, are you?" Shadow grumbled.

"Let's just say, one of those reasons landed a few minutes ago," the Pokémon Officer said, as she continued on through the hall.

"And anything more, and we'd have to put you in a PokéBall," Kinza added.

"I wouldn't do that," an older man said as he saw the group and stepped over. He was carrying a large book under his arm, and was wearing one of those lab jackets that North seemed fond of. "She gets cranky when you try."

Shadow stood back. She had not expected this.

"Brock?" she asked.

He was taller than she remembered him, and a streak of gray was running across his hair, but it was indeed the Pokémon Breeder that she remembered from years of avoiding the twer- um - Ash Ketchum and his many attempts to capture her as a Pokémon in his PokéBall.

"Okay, when do I show up?" she mused looking about the hall.

"Pardon?" the older Brock asked.

Shadow laughed lightly. "At this rate, I expect to find an old ME showing up!" Brock joined her in laughing.

"The way this place works, I wouldn't be surprised. I've never really been able to figure out this time/space thing that this facility is sitting in, but I'd say you'd have a good chance at it! What brings you to the Stratus, Miss Shadow?"

It was subtle, but with her ears, Shadow clearly heard it over the din of the hall, as did the Security Officer beside her. A bell chimed and a light flashed over a desk just right of the main doorway. Kinza grabbed Shadow's arm, stopping her from saying anything more. Brock saw where he was looking and saw the light as well.

"Oops! Did I ask something I should not have?" he asked, scratching the back of his head.

Kinza released Shadow's arm. "No prob. That's not a question you can ask, Mr. Chairman... History scans and all... Observer's rules."

Brock nodded. "I understand. Ah well, such is life on the Stratus sometimes. Enjoy your visit here, Miss Shadow. I must find my wife around here... we were suppose to have lunch together."

"She might be delayed," Jenny said, "what with the MewTwo arriving on Forrestal."

Brock looked at Jenny. "What? The MewTwo? You mean M2 is here? Geeze, I really do have to get out from my lab more often! Okay, I'll be in the infirmary then if anyone needs me... It's been nice to see you again Shadow."

Shadow watched Brock head off to her right. This was too much. She looked over at the desk and that light. She watched it turn off, and the security person seated below it settle down. She then felt a tug at her arm.

"Hey," Kinza said with a smile. "Lunch room's over here."

"Big Brother is watching us?" she queried. Kinza looked at the desk and gave a confused look.

"Big Brother?" he asked.

"A book from my Earth... 1984... About a society that is controlled by an all seeing, all knowing dictatorship..." Kinza and the Jenny looked at each other.

"Ah," Kinza finally said. "I think I understand. I'm afraid that there is the occasional reason for the computer that monitors the history scans to alert us that something might need to be avoided, since the Stratus works out of the time lines. Otherwise, we could run into trouble in the long run."

Shadow looked at the smaller cat-like man. "Are you telling me that all is foretold? There is no free will?"

Kinza shook his head. "Not at all… in fact, without free will and simple fate running amuck, history would be boring indeed. But, since the history scans have been made on certain events, it is possible for the scanning computer to alert us if something might be brought up that would be better left alone. Look at President Natsumi – she obviously knows much of Prime Level's history, since she's already lived it. But she's sworn to secrecy since any foreknowledge would upset the time flow and create a temporal breech of the time lines."

The Jenny shook her head. "I still hate it when it does that - especially around the Chairman. He deserves better than that."

Kinza shrugged. "Hey, even I know some of the future, but I understand the reason for not jumping up on this table and blurting it out. First, the crowd will think you're nuts, and second, up here at least, you'd be jumped on by, what did you call it, Big Brother?"

The Jenny laughed. "Not to mention you'd have to jump on yourself," she giggled. "I'll be right back," she then excused herself. Shadow watched her move towards the cafeteria's tray line.

"Excuse me, but she's got to be the oldest Jenny I've ever seen," she whispered to Kinza. She watched him stifle a laugh.

"Well, first," he gagged through the chortle, "she's not a Jenny. That's Chief Jennifer, the original Jenny so to say."

Shadow stared. "The original Jenny? Ah! The others… they're…"

Kinza looked at her. "You mean the clones?" Shadow turned her stare towards the security officer and nodded. "Oh yes," he continued. "Another of the Sakaki's early government projects, before they became the naughty people that same government made of them. And the chief medical officer up here is Doctor Joy… who also happens to be Chairman Brock's wife."

Shadow saw a nearby chair and pulled it up close, then sat down with a thud, sitting facing the seat back. "I think I'm going to have a headache – a BIG one…" Kinza laughed out loud this time.

"Then would you believe that he was once married to the President?" Shadow just looked at Kinza then put her head between her hands.

"He always was a bit girl happy… uhhh… too much information…" Shadow just shook her head. She looked up at the wall and saw another of those lights. "Next you'll tell me that he tried to marry ME!"

The light did not turn on. She sighed in relief.

Kinza chuckled. "I'll get us something to drink… you look like you could use it."

Shadow sat there thinking. The events of the day had nearly overwhelmed her. She sighed.

"I don't know about you, but I don't trust that creature any further than I could toss him…"

She hadn't intended to listen in, but Shadow's cat ears could pick up the slightest sound, and since the cafeteria was rather enclosed, sound bounced about rather easily. She peeked over the edge of the chair.

"Yea, you're right," another voice was heard. "It's a menace… it has no place here on the Stratus."

Shadow looked over towards the far corner of the room. The voices belonged to a table of men and women having a group lunch. They were dressed differently, not like the uniforms of the Starship people, nor like Jennifer or this Kinza fellow.

"You're jumping to conclusions, Jerry," one of the ladies said. But the other woman shook her head.

"It destroyed the 14th level's lab on New Island AND Giovanni – it admitted it. It left a 20 mile dead zone on the planet. None of the other MewTwos did that."

"I don't trust ANY of them… they should be banned from the Stratus," the original voice added. It was some man in a security outfit, like the one at the front desk.

Kinza returned and saw Shadow's look on her face, and like a good cat, saw her ears pointing ahead of her. He looked over at the location she was tuned in to and shook his head.

"I don't normally stick my ears into other's business," Shadow said with a touch of anger in her voice, "but isn't what they're talking about contrary to the Stratus' motto?"

Kinza grunted. "There's been a good deal of noise rumbling about with the MewTwo coming here. I've had a few problems already to deal with. People are a bit afraid of this particular MewTwo being here."

Shadow looked at Kinza. "I hope that Doorknob will protect him from this. He is a psychic after all."

Kinza nodded in agreement, then offered her to get some lunch. They sat with Chief Jennifer, slowly eating their meal. But the food was hard to swallow, since the overall conversation in the room seemed to be about the MewTwo and how it should be sent off the Stratus as soon as possible.

A League Runner entered the cafeteria and looked about. He saw the table with Shadow and headed over to her.

"Are you Shadowcat?" he asked. He handed her a note when she nodded and headed off on another errand. She opened it and read it.

"Problems?" Jennifer asked.

"Mya will be delayed. She recommends I find a room and stay over for a while." Shadow folded the note and placed it beside her plate. "Not a bad idea, seeing that I'm a bit tired, and the conversation in this room is a bit… ugly…"

Jennifer looked about. "Pardon me?"

"I'll explain later," Kinza said, also weary of the talk, "though I'd suggest you might want to post a guard at the MewTwo's room tonight. And if you do, be selective."

Kinza and Shadow excused themselves, leaving a confused Chief behind.

The guest quarters were large and plush. At least it was better than the atmosphere of the cafeteria. She found the bed and crashed onto it.

She quickly slumbered off. She hadn't thought she was that tired, but she fell asleep quickly. But the dream that greeted her was not hers.

She found herself standing on the landing pad again. M2 was standing there, staring at her as he had earlier.

"I want to be your friend," the gentle voice returned. "I want to be your friend…"

The world swirled, and she found herself standing in a lab somewhere… no, not standing, squatting… she was inside a tube of some sort. It was filled with a greenish fluid that almost looked like anti-freeze. She looked out of the glass wall she was behind and saw scientists. They were all exclaiming over the new creation that was before them.

"My fellow scientists, we've done it! We have created the perfect Pokémon! Since it is an enhanced clone of the original Mew, I shall call it MewTwo… Let us listen to its thoughts," the closest lab jacket said.

"Perfect? I am perfect?" a voice that resounded around her said. It wasn't Shadow's voice, but she heard it as if it had come from herself.

"Perfect? That is perfect?"

Another voice - There was another voice - But from where? The scientists acted like they did not hear it. A quick look around the room found another tube across from this one.

"Who is that? I hear you…"

The scientists looked at one another. "Who is who?" the nearest one asked.

"I hear a voice… another voice… another voice from across the room… that tube over there…"

"I am perfect as well… you can not deny that, human! You have done too much to me to deny that!"

Shadow now could feel the pain running through that other tube. She had herself felt such pain when she had been subjected to some of the same 'tests' this unfortunate had been put through. A swell of hate ran through her.

The scientist looked at the tube. "That experiment showed no signs of mental projection. Discard it. It is interfering with this test."

"Interfering!? Experiment!? NO! I AM PERFECT! I AM PERFECT!" As it shouted, the glass that enclosed it started to crack and splinter. "I WILL NOT BE DISCARDED!!"

The tube shattered, and a wave of psychic energy swept the room. The people dodged the flying glass and equipment.

Then… there was the sound of a small explosion, but none to be seen. Shadow looked at the creature that had emerged from the tube and gasped. It looked like a melted version of a MewTwo, poorly formed and ill conceived, but still quite conscious.

It stood rigid, looking at a man in a business suit and sunglasses. The man was holding a gun up which was still smoking.

"No!" Shadow and her host cried. The pathetic creature looked at her and gave a slight whimper. Another psychic picture flashed across her mind. The torture, the extreme punishment the poor thing had gone through, all flashed by in an instant.

The man shot again. The creature collapsed.

"MURDERERS!" swallowed Shadowcat, as she felt the anger swell in the containment vessel. "You inflicted death on an innocent!"

"Please, please, MewTwo… It was a prototype only. It showed no signs of life or mental thought until just now! Please understand! It was just an experiment!"

"AN EXPERIMENT!? IS THAT ALL I AM TO YOU!? A MERE TOY FOR YOU TO PROD AND POKE WITH YOUR SCIENTIFIC APPARATUS? A MERE CLONE OF AN ORIGINAL THAT CAN BE DISCARDED ON THE MEREST WHIM? I THINK NOT! YOU CAUSUALLY KILLED THAT PROTOTYPE YOU CALLED IT? THEN ALLOW ME… I SHALL SHOW YOU DEATH!!"

Shadow's dream exploded into a brilliant display of lights and colors, only interrupted by a momentary brief scream of pain. When the light faded, she could see that she was now outside, or rather, the building was gone, and she had been the epicenter. She looked about, seeing nothing but destruction, and water rushing back in to where it was missing.

"MewTwo," she thought. "What have you done?"

"What… what have I done?"

The voice of the MewTwo had returned. Shadow could see as the MewTwo had seen. He had turned about, surveying his wrath. And something else struck her. She could feel what he had felt. Was it remorse?

She watched as the point of view tour continued. MewTwo walked along the wreckage examining his destructive powers, when he came to the remains of a stairwell down. The image changed from the surface world to that of a room with some still operational computers. She watched the paw of the MewTwo waiver over a keyboard. The computer started to show a journal.

"The Mew Clone Project... day 249... The experiment is nearly complete. MewTwo's progress has been prefect, well worth the failures of the 20 prior attempts."

"20 prior attempts? Your 21st just killed you, fool..." Shadow heard the MewTwo grumble, a touch of anger returning to his voice.

"I fear what Giovanni plans on using the Mew clone for... with all the powers he should have, the Mew clone will need proper guidance, and Giovanni is the last one I would trust with this... fortunately, the 20th project still lives. When he arrives today, I will show him that one... The Golden R has all ready offered to care for my creation... I trust them to bring it up properly, more than Giovanni's bunch."

"What have I done?" the question returned. "What have I done? The man… the man before me… he cared for me… was going to save me? Why? Why me?"

Shadow watched as the paw shut down the computer. "The answer is simple… I overreacted."

The world swirled again, and Shadow found herself standing on a cliff overlooking a burning red world. In her mind she gasped. "MewTwo, did you do this as well?"

"No," came a reply. "This is how I left my world, dying…"

Shadow watched as a ghost Pokémon reared up before her. She recognized it as a Haunter. But the color was wrong. This one was a crimson red. She felt a sweeping fear rush through her soul as the apparition approached. Then the MewTwo swept his paw across it, and the ghost burst. Behind it though was another red ghost, and many more to follow.

"Somehow, I was the last… the last creature alive on my world… yet, someone was there - someone was watching me. Someone who offered to help me - rescue me, and with no payment in return, as many had wished of me before. I felt safe with them. So, I allowed them to rescue me."

Shadow felt her world dissolve into a shimmering spectral light show. The dead world was replaced by that of technology. And before her stood the lady she remembered from the video tape. She was tall, slender, with long shoulder length blond hair and blue eyes. Even for a MewTwo, this human was a pleasant surprise.

"Welcome aboard the Exeter… I'm Captain Edwards. I am pleased that you could join us." She held out her hand and shook the paw that the MewTwo offered.

"Miss Shadow? Miss Shadow!"

Shadowcat's dream faded quickly, replaced by her rapid snap-to out of her bed. That voice didn't sound like it was from this strange dream.

"Actually, it was…" the voice said. Shadow quickly rubbed her eyes clear of the fuzziness. She looked over the end of her bed towards a chair across from her. There sat the MewTwo, his eyes gleaming in the darken room. She grabbed at the bed sheets and covered herself, until she realized she had sacked out in her clothes.

Like she had earlier, the MewTwo was seated with the chair backwards. His huge tail made sitting in a normal way hard on the psycat. He was simply sitting there looking at her.

"Pardon my visit, ma'am… I was worried about you," he said. She was surprised again that he chose to speak normally, rather than psychically. He was sitting there with his head leaning against his paws.

"Worried? About me?" Shadow grabbed her knees. "Why?"

M2 raised his head. "Well, we mind locked there for a moment when we met earlier. I wasn't ready for such a powerful psychic to be there when Forrestal landed, other than the President that is."

"Powerful psychic? Me?" Shadow looked at her knees that she was clutching.

"Don't underestimate yourself. You're making me use this device they gave me at nearly full power. Even the President doesn't require that high a setting. And yet, I sense that somewhere in this complex is someone… something that would require an even higher setting. And then there's that dimension you're from… I sense that you have a friend there who is possibly as powerful as you."

Shadow looked puzzled at M2. "Do you mean Robert? What about him?"

M2 smiled and closed his eyes. "Not a thing, ma'am. I just find it interesting that a pair of psychics with your powers chose to hide it from everyone."

Shadow thought about that for a moment. "We're really that powerful?"

M2 looked at her with a touch of surprise. "You really didn't know? It was why we mind locked. That is why you just witnessed my rather violent birth… I am sorry. I did not mean to download that to you."

Shadow moved to the end of the bed and reached over to touch the paw on the top of the chair. "It's all right. It allowed me to see your world better. I think I understand you better."

M2 smiled. "Thank you, but, I must admit you sent a strong segment of your mind to me as well."

Shadow snatched her hand back. "I… I did?"

He nodded. "It must have been something to deal with seeing me for the first time. The image that you sent was of many shapes looking down at you in some experiment, and they vaguely looked like me."

She looked down at the floor. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to… North says that they're really people in space suits and that it was my mind that made them look like MewTwos…"

She felt a paw touch her on the chin, and she looked up at the kind pair of eyes looking back at her. "Your friend is correct. I don't wear an air hose."

A bell rang, and a light flashed over the door.

"Oops… it looks like I'm missed," M2 said. "They suggested that I not leave the infirmary… I guess they finally found I'm not there."

"They're afraid of you," Shadow said with a slight snarl. "Foolish…"

"It is not their fault. They know my history. Just not as well as you do." With that, he stood up and walked to the door just as a knock was heard. He opened it to find Kinza standing there.

"Shadow… the MewTwo is… oh… there you are…"

"Is there a problem, Mr. Kinza?" Shadow asked.

"Not at all, at least in MY book," the security officer said to them both. "I can't say the same for some of the others here. They're a bit nervous that M2 here isn't in Sick Bay…"

"I was just heading back there," he said. "Have no fear."

"No prob, bud. I have nothing but respect for a fellow cat," Kinza said. "Let's get you back there before the flakier security yoyos get here."

"Understood - Miss Shadow, it was a pleasure." M2 bowed slightly and walked out of her room. Kinza shrugged and followed.

Shadow sat there holding her knees for awhile. She fell back into her bed, but then sprang up again. Something had struck her. Not physically, but just as if something had. She looked about then ran out of the room, her feelings guiding her.

Something told her to head in a direction she never had followed in the complex. Another flash of pain made her start running faster.

She entered the infirmary through one door and saw a security officer standing over the prone body of M2, a baton in his hand. The Captain of Forrestal entered another door and sent the security officer flying with a gesture.

"NO! M2!" Shadow cried. She quickly was to the psycat's side.

"What is the meaning of this mister!?" bellowed the Captain. Shadow looked over at the security officer, who was just starting to get up. She only wondered briefly how the Captain had tossed the man without touching him, when she saw that the man was no longer on the floor.

"Its evil!" the baton wielding man flayed. "Stop it Captain Strom! Look what it's doing to me! Stop it!"

"It's not MewTwo, corporal," a familiar voice said behind Shadow. She looked back to see North and Brock standing in the doorway.

"The Captain is more powerful than me… oooh…" M2 said, slowly pushing at the floor to right himself. "He just hides his power well."

"It looks like Kinza's report was correct," North said to the chairman as he got on one side of M2 to help him up with Shadow on the other.

"Kinza and I were listening in during lunch while this one was ranting about M2," Shadow snarled at the security officer as he spun about in mid air.

"Mr. Kinza spoke well of you. You did good alerting him to this," North said, nodding to Shadow.

"Kinza!" M2 said, snapping to, and looking about. The MewTwo stepped between North and Shadow for the far side of a workbench. Just as the older Joy entered the room, M2 dove behind the table gesturing her to come over. There, she found the security officer sprawled across the floor, a trickle of blood running from a hidden gash on the back of his head.

"Oh god," she said as she and Brock attended the stricken officer. "Head trauma, impacted vertebrae… how many times did he strike him?"

Shadow felt an overwhelming shock of hate and anger swell through the room. She looked at M2, expecting it to be the MewTwo, but he too seemed to feel the thrust of this emotion, and was looking back towards her. She looked around, and found that the energy was coming from Captain Strom.

"Mister," the Captain spat, "I don't give a damn what you call what you were doing to M2. You attacked your superior! You attacked my security chief! You attacked MY FRIEND!"

Shadow watched as each point Strom brought up seemed to bring extra pressure on the floating man, who was now crying and pleading for his life.

"Captain? Captain!" Shadow exclaimed, grabbing his arm. "You'll kill him!"

The Captain looked at Shadow, then at the security guard.

"She's right, Roy," North said, touching Shadow's shoulder. "Let's do this properly."

Strom sighed, relaxing slightly. He then tossed the guard into a nearby chair where two crewmen from Forrestal were standing waiting to put him under arrest. The Captain then turned his attention to his fallen security chief.

He found M2 working feverishly on Kinza's head and back, the psychic glow of his fingers and eyes flashing as he worked.

"It is not as bad as it looks," the MewTwo said, "though there is a slight contusion on the back of his head."

Joy and Brock looked up at the MewTwo and saw him give the Captain a quick glance. They nodded and continued to assist him. North noticed the motion and looked over the work being done.

"I suggest we give them room to work," he noted and then snapped his fingers and pointed at the two Forrestal men. "Take our friend to the brig." He then ushered his fellow Captain out of the room along with Shadow.

Outside of the infirmary Strom paced back and forth like a caged animal. "I hate being lied to, even if it's for a good reason," he steamed.

Shadow looked at him, then at North.

"M2 is a rotten liar," North quietly said. "We know that Doctor Joy is very good at quick medical judgments."

Shadow looked at the floor and sighed. North held her close, and she laid her head against his shoulder. At least there was someone there she knew.

The door of the infirmary slid open. "At least the psy-kitty knows what he's doing when building a puzzle!" Kinza moaned, holding his head.

"You take it to bed, mister!" scolded Joy. "No prowling the halls tonight."

"Yes motherrrr!" he razzed back as he slowly trundled down the hallway towards his quarters with the assistance of the MewTwo.

Joy just watched and shook her head. "Most amazing reconstructive work I've ever seen," she said out loud. Brock, who was standing beside her, nodded in agreement.

"It was a good thing that M2 was there to assist," he added.

"Assist? He did all the work!" Joy exclaimed. "I want to check him out though… he was showing signs of pain…" She nodded to an orderly who then followed Kinza and M2 down the hall.

"You got the data on Mr. Kinza's condition before M's work?" Strom coldly asked. The Doctor held up a scanning rod and handed it to him. "Good. That will be needed for the courts marshal. Please keep an eye on him, doctor. He has that 'other' condition that this might affect as well."

He turned towards Shadow. "Thank you," he told her. He looked up at North and smiled. "She's a good find Rob. Take care of her." He left them barking orders in his communicator for Forrestal security to temporarily replace Stratus security for the time being.

Shadow never left North's side as they walked back to her room. There were so many events that had happen that day alone, she could hardly stand being alone. She almost wasn't expecting his next question as he sat her down and he took a chair beside her.

"Last I knew, you were at the monitoring station at the hotel," he started, which snapped her mind back to her original mission.

"The monitoring… we were watching…"

North stopped her. "We?"

A tap on his shoulder made him turn about. "We," Mya said suddenly behind him. North nearly jumped out of his socks.

"Myamoto!" he exclaimed, but then thought. "Of what level?"

Shadow looked at North confused. "Level? What do you mean level? Mr. Kinza asked that of me earlier as well… What is this level thing everyone asks about?"

Mya smiled and nodded. "I am from 1.1. I am Pikachu Ketchum's trainer from…" she said as she gestured to the ceiling. North nodded.

"Understood," he said. Shadow noticed a slight relief in his voice as he turned towards her. "I told you about the dimensional levels before, Mya here is an example of this occurrence… she is the Myamoto of Level 1.1."

"Well, most of her," she added coyly. Shadow and North both looked slightly askew for a moment but then North understood.

"Ah yes, you are the divided Myamoto, I forgot." Shadow turned her askew look now towards North. "It's a long story…"

"Obviously," she quipped. She then looked at Mya. "Why were you called away?"

Mya sighed and glanced at the ceiling. "For reasons they have yet to tell me, I was not to be seen by Chairman Brock. But that's all I was told. I've been in a waiting shunt for all this time, on hold."

"Ouch," North said. "Been there, done that… I hate being shunted…"

Shadow tapped her head. "Oh, the President said that she already knew why Jesse, James and Meowth didn't have their memories, and that she wanted us to look into the events that led up to their loosing them."

Mya nodded. North now had the askew look.

"Huh?" he said.

"It's a long story," Shadow answered with a smirk. North shook his head and laughed.

"Okay, but you get some rest, okay? You look like you've been through the ringer." He reached over and kissed her on the forehead again and rubbed her head. "Okay?"

She nodded and smiled. "Okay," she said, and ushered them to the door. "Goodnight."

She felt wiped, but even with all that had occurred that day, she found herself staring at the ceiling. But without realizing it, she nodded off about an hour later still trying to make sense of it all.

"Shadow…"

It sounded like a whisper on a spring breeze. A slight waft of flowers and pines ran across the room.

"Shadow…"

She slowly opened her eyes. There was a voice… there was a sense of something near calling her.

"Stacey, come to me… We need to talk…"

The sound of her real name made her sit upright in a start. If she was dreaming this, the voice she was hearing was as if it were in her head. It was a deeper voice, much like Aslanti's. She was sure it wasn't M2's as she would recognize it too easily. But something drew her to the sound, the deep resonance of it.

"Come… come Shadowcat. Journey into the depths of the Stratus… learn what no other here has learned before. You have an important mission to fulfill if you are to find out who you are and why you are here…"

She got out of her bed and threw on a robe provided by the League. "Who I am? I know who I am!" she thought.

"Do you child?" the voice asked. "Then maybe I should just leave you alone."

Shadow looked about. "No! No, please, tell me where you are. I… I must find you…"

"Very well child… follow my voice, you shall find me."

The door to her room opened and a slight mist rolled by in the hall. She entered the hallway and heard a low rumble from where the mist was coming from. She stepped in that direction, but found it to be like strolling in slow motion.

"Come, come Shadowcat," the voice continued to beckon. She started to run, but it still was as if she were running through putty. And the hallway seemed miles long.

"Stop here," the voice said. Shadow halted in mid step and looked about. It suddenly dawned on her that the hallway was no longer there. She was standing in a void. It was dark, and a shroud of mist covered the ground, or at least what she thought was ground. It was impossible to see if there was any there.

"Ah, there they are…" the voice rumbled. "If you please…"

Shadow cocked her head. "If I please what?" she asked, but then noticed that she wasn't who the voice had been talking to. Four strange figures appeared, bouncing and jumping from out of the mist. They acted like Pokémon playing in the fog, but they looked like letters to Shadow.

"Stop bounding about, and let my guest enter!" the deep voice boomed. The four - things – spun about, then settled above Shadow. They appeared to spell out 'OPEN' over her head.

A split opened before her, a doorway that seemed impossible to be there, slid to either side of her. She looked in first, then took a tentative step forwards.

"H-hello?" she asked.

"Welcome… welcome my child to the Heart of the Stratus. Come… come in my dear."

She slowly stepped through the threshold. She found herself in what she could only describe to herself as a new land. Towers loomed overhead on one side, and hills and mesas on the other. Shadow looked up at the tallest of the towers before her, and saw the source of the voice looking down on her.

"Hello, Miss Shadowcat. We must talk…"

She held her breath, and gasped out its name.

"Entei!"

oOo

Characters from Pokémon ©2001-03, 05, 07 The Pokémon Company/Nintendo/Creatures/GameFreak  
Strom, Edwards, Kinza, Exeter, Forrestal, GENUINE DOORKNOB, The Observers ©2001-03, 05, 07 Denivan Media Services - Used with Permission  
North, M2 ©2001-03, 05, 07 The Lugia Project/DMS – Used with Permission  
"Terminal Solutions" ©2001-03, 05, 07 Steve Brunton - Used with Permission  
Angel Myamoto ©©2001-03, 05, 07 C. Ruester-TiredGamer/Brightblade Productions - Used with Permission  
Ah My Goddess ©©2001-03, 05, 07 Kosuke Fujishima/Kodansha  
Shadowcat (Shadsie, Shadow) ©2001-03, 05, 07 S. E. Nordwall

©©2001-03, 05, 07 S. E. Nordwall/R. A. Stott - The Lugia Project II/DMS

Edited 0501.30, 0707.04


	7. Legendaries

Originally Published Summer 2001  
First Published on FFN: 03/23/03  
Original FFN #1280256/7

**A F T E R ¤ C H R O N I C L E S  
Y E A R ¤ O F ¤ T H E ¤ C A T**

**By R. A. Stott**

_Based on characters by S. E. Nordwall and R. A. Stott  
With References to Steve Brunton's "Terminal Solutions"  
&  
C. Ruester's (TiredGamer) "Fate's Game"_

**Chapter Seven**

**Legendaries**

Morning broke with a mist filling the valley below Shadow's tent. She sat next to Aslanti sipping a cup of freshly brewed coffee. Baka sat rolled up in a ball, twitching from time to time and refusing to get up this early in the morning. She shook her head. Silly Bakagoat.

She looked over at the fiery mane of Aslanti. She reached over and stroked it, knowing that she could without burning herself. She could feel him rumble with pleasure to her touch.

As she returned to her coffee, she remembered a night a few months ago and sat in the wonder of it all. The night she met him - the night she met Entei – along with an old friend she had forgotten.

A baleful cry permeated the air.

Shadow's ears quickly located the source of the wail. It was a dog-like Pokémon that seemed to have a cloud floating off its back. It was on top of one of the towers near Entei. The Legendary Pokémon glanced over at the crying beast and closed his eyes. He nodded as if he understood why this painful sound was being released. He returned his stare down towards the lady below him. And then he leapt.

Shadow took a step back, her eyes wide and her mouth agape. The height seemed impossible to survive a jump from, and the speed that Entei was falling made her think he had just leapt to his fate.

With a resounding thud that shook the ground she was standing on, Entei landed before her, no worse for wear so it would seem. He turned and looked up again at the crying Pokémon then lowered his head.

"E-Entei…" Shadow whispered nervously, "who is that? Why that cry? It almost sounds like… a cry for the dead?"

Entei snorted. "It is… That is Suicune… she is lamenting the loss of so many so far, and for those yet to die… A great darkness is coming, Miss Shadowcat."

"So I've been told," she remarked. This evil force that she had been hearing about was getting a bit ominous. "Entei, why are you here? Where is this place?"

"I told you my child," the majestic beast said. "This is the Heart of the Stratus. This is my home. This is where many of the unique Legendary Pokémon live. Only the bird types live on each level of existence, not us overseers."

Shadow looked at the large beast before her while the wail of Suicune still echoed around them. "I remember a story… that you were only a dream… a myth…"

Entei seemed to smile and stepped closer. "Come here, place your hand on my fur," he said in a deep rumbling voice.

Shadow held back a moment. She then reached out and touched the deep and heavy fur that made up Entei's mane. It was soft and warm and incredibly thick. She then found his head being thrust closer to her own.

"Oooh, yes, up a little… I haven't had someone scratch me there in millennia…" the beast said. Shadow bore down and scratched the area near Entei's left ear. As she did, she felt her left hand get something placed in it. Looking down, she found Suicune nuzzling her muzzle into her hand wanting a scratch as well.

"Okay you," she said. She tried to scratch Suicune's ear as well, but Entei's size made the stretch a bit hard. He lowered his head to allow Shadow to better scratch both.

After a while, her arms started to pain from the vigorous work out. "Hey you two," said griped to the canines, "was I woken up just to give you two an ear scratch, or what?"

Entei sighed. "Are you sure?" Suicune kept pushing against her hand wanting more.

Shadow sat back and glared at the big puppy. "Entei!"

He laughed and stood up. "No, I had you scratch ME," to which he directed the 'ME' at Suicune, who was still pressing her head against Shadow, "to soothe your nerves. And it obviously worked, as you're now scolding us!"

Shadow smirked, and was about to give the Legendary beast a piece of her mind when the skies darkened a deadly red, and the ground shook. Suicune had a wild look in her eyes, and was baying again. Entei looked as if he had been shot. He crumpled to his hunches with a stricken look on his face.

"Uhh! Forgive me, Miss Shadow," he said as he fell over with a sickening thud.

It had all happen so fast, Shadow barely knew what to do. Entei seemed dead. Suicune seemed uncontrollable with grief. What was going on here?

She rose to see if she could do anything for the massive Pokémon when she saw a leg move. He then planted it hard to the ground and started to right himself. He raised his head, looked at her and then lowered it again.

"Another one… it's getting closer…" he said as he hauled himself up. Shadow assisted him as he stretched, then plopped down on his haunches again.

"What happen?' she asked him. She could see that he was struggling to regain his composure. He shook his head as if he were trying to clear the cobwebs from his mind.

"So many dreams… so many souls…" He looked down on the lady beside him. "Another world has died… I told you that the Legendaries that live here are unique?" Shadow nodded.

"Overseers you said?" she replied. He nodded to her, pleased that she remembered. "What does that mean?"

He looked around. The skies were returning to their normal colors. "Not all Legendary Pokémon appear on all the worlds of the Pokémon," he said. "The unique ones like Suicune and myself only appear once, and journey to the many levels, as your friend North would call it, when necessary."

"But why?" Shadow asked like a small child would. Entei smiled.

"We are watchers, healers and overseers. Suicune is the watcher of nature. She heals the wounds man and others do to the worlds." He noticed Shadow nodding and shook his head. "I know what you're thinking, and no. Man is not the only destroyer of nature - he's just the best at it!"

Shadow smiled. "And what is your duty, watcher?"

He closed his eyes and raised his head as if seeking an answer. "Dreams," he said.

"Umm… pardon me?"

"Dreams," he repeated. "I am the watcher over dreams."

Shadow looked a bit puzzled. "All dreams?"

Entei chuckled. "No, just good dreams. I am the Entei of the Light. My counterpart on the other side of these mountains is the Dark Entei. She is the watcher of nightmares."

"She?" Shadow asked, looking about as she was worried it were about to jump out of a corner.

"My mate, yes." Shadow returned her look at Entei, one ear drooping in surprise at the beast. He laughed. "Yes, my dear. To every dark, there must be light, and to every light there will always be some dark."

Shadow still looked a bit puzzled. "Okay… So, if you're the watcher of dreams, why am I here?"

Entei looked down on her. "I invited you here, because I am the only one capable of doing so."

"You did? I thought those strange Pokémon let me in here."

Entei cocked his head. "Humm? Ah, you mean the Unown… They work for me… Most of the time… they do tend to, ummm, play a bit."

Shadow looked at the large dog-god with a skeptical expression. He seemed to clear his throat.

"My mate certainly would not have brought you here, and Suicune can only take herself from level to level. My pups have yet the power to do so on their own… and Suicune's haven't the power."

Shadow looked at the crying beast behind her. "She has pups? I thought she was unique?"

Entei shook his massive head. "Even unique things must pass when their time has come, so shall it be with me, so shall it be with Suicune. There can be only one Suicune at a time, though there can be many pups – un-evolved I believe humans call them."

"An un-evolved Suicune pup? I've never heard of such a thing," Shadow said as Suicune returned to wanting her ear scratched.

"In this world, in this – room, for a better word – you may see many Pokémon that you've never seen before, or that have even been cataloged."

Shadow looked around. Indeed, there did seem to be a few stray creatures about, lurking in the corners, hiding in the shadows, all keeping an eye on the stranger with Entei. She returned her look to the Legendary that was nuzzling her hand with her nose.

"If she has pups, that would mean she has a mate as well… how does that make her unique?" Shadow looked back at Entei to see him looking at the sky.

"Her mate, as all of Suicune's mates came when the sky path opened," he said.

"Sky path?" Shadow asked. "You mean a large opening that drops Pokémon on the planet?" Entei gave a slight nod. "Daedalus!"

"Ah, the human name for it," Entei said. "Yes. Suicune's mate came on the last passing, as did… do… my potential replacements…"

Shadow looked at the sky that Entei was staring at. "Replacements?" she asked.

"An Entei's life is nearly eternal, though they must fight to retain it. I have defeated all that have come to challenge my stewardship of this position over the millennia. And as for Suicune's mate, he returned to the sky path and has not been seen since."

"But… where do these Enteis and Suicunes come from?"

Entei blinked and looked at Shadow. "What do you mean? We came from the sky path. I defeated my predecessor and he returned up the path…"

Shadow stroked his fur beside his ear. "Yes, but do you remember anything about where you came from?"

Entei looked away with a puzzled expression on his face. "Interesting… What a fascinating question! I have no memory of where I came from, save that I know I have a brother and sister somewhere. Where they may be is a mystery held by the sky path. Where my predecessor went as well is unknown. Entei are supposed to fight to the end – a battle to the death. But I allowed my fellow Entei to return to whence we came." He then looked away. "But I'm not sure that I may survive the next encounter, if it happens too soon."

Shadow looked at him with worry. "Why? If it is the Daedalus, you have many years to go until its return.'

Entei nodded. "Yes, but if I were to be challenged now, with my powers depleted as they are, I would probably be vanquished."

"Why are you showing me then? Am I not Team Rocket?" she asked.

Entei lowered his head and placed his furry brow against Shadow's forehead. "I know your dreams. I've know them since before you came here, since before you entered the PokéWorld. You are not like them, those who would steal and take what is not theirs. At least, you don't do it for your own gains…" he added. Shadow looked down, knowing that he knew just what Giovanni had made her do over these last few years. She scuffed the grown with her foot. Entei pushed his furry head into her face and shook it.

"Be at peace child," he said with a rumble. "You are not at fault for what was forced on you. I understand, as do most Pokémon that you have encountered as well." She looked up at him. Her eyes were wet. She had few times when the sins that she had been made to do were pointed out to her, but when they were, she felt the agony of the betrayal of her faith and convictions. She grabbed Entei's mane and sobbed. He lay down and allowed her to drape herself across his foreleg. She cried until she drifted to sleep.

When she awoke, she found herself between Entei's forelegs. He had placed his head beside her. She had been using his left cheek as a pillow. Suicune was covering her legs. Both Legendary canines were fast asleep. She looked around, and saw that it was now dark, and that a huge moon hung overhead. She rested back into the warm fur of Entei. It made her feel better to know that he was still there and that this hadn't been a dream.

It was peaceful and quiet. Only the sounds of the large dog's breathing disturbed the tranquil night air. The sky was illuminated with the large moon and the stars, though she couldn't tell just what constellations she could see, since this world seemed to be of a universe all its own. No matter. It was beautiful.

What was that? She twisted her ears about. There was something near. She could hear it. It sounded like hoof beats.

She sat up and looked about. Now she heard what sounded like a horse neighing. She looked down a path. A dark fog was rolling up from a valley the trail lead into. She reached back to awaken Entei, but found him already moving about.

"Fear not. It is a friend," he said as the cloud approached. It stopped a few yards away. Suicune yipped at it as a few trickles of fog wafted across her nose.

"Friendly fog? That's different," Shadow said to herself.

"She has come," a voice from the clouds said, startling Shadow. Suicune jumped up and playfully bounded through some of the fog, turning it from a dark color to a light white.

"Hey! Stop that!" the voice said. Shadow looked hard at where her ears were telling her the voice was coming from. She could see a head of a horse, black as the night, shimmering with the moon light. It stood above the fog, though it was impossible to see the beast's legs.

"I've… I've seen that horse before," Shadow exclaimed as she saw a diamond shape on its forehead. It wasn't until it moved its head that Shadow saw that it was a real diamond as it flashed in the moon light. It bobbed its head then shocked her as it unfurled a pair of wings that had been part of the fog. It stretched one, then the other, then neatly folded them back into the fog that hid its legs.

Shadow sat in awe. "A black Pegasus?" She felt Entei move behind her. She looked up to see him looking down.

"Pegasus?" he asked.

"A name given a winged horse from her home world, my lord," the black stallion said.

Entei nodded. "I guess that is the best way to categorize you," he said to the horse, then directed himself to Shadow, "though he has no Pokémon name that I know of…"

The winged horse snorted. "I was given a name, though I didn't ask them to do so."

Entei seemed happy to hear this. "Really? What name have they given you?"

The horse sighed. "Cheverian – it means Aero Horse." Shadow could hear him digging his hooves into the dirt path, obviously annoyed that anyone would attempt to name him. She then could feel Entei laughing.

"I think Cheverian is a nice name," he chuckled. "Miss Shadow, allow me to introduce Nightwatch the Cheverian."

The black winged horse snorted then bowed to Shadow.

"What?" Entei continued to laugh at Nightwatch's reaction to his new PokéName. "Do you think I needed a human provided name like Entei? Don't worry about it my friend. The world won't come to an end now that they have categorized you."

"As you will, my lord," Nightwatch grumbled, "though I find it troubling that I was actually named many years ago… I was just talking with a friend of mine who told me that I appear in the old book form of those PokéDexes they refer to all the time."

Entei shook his head. "How long ago?"

Nightwatch sighed. "Second edition…"

Shadow blinked. "The second edition of the ancient PokéDexes? I remember seeing them in the Viridian Reference Library a few years ago. They're 400 years old!"

An ear on the horse drooped. "So?" it asked. Shadow felt Entei shake again with a laugh.

"When I said millennia, I wasn't exaggerating," he said.

Shadow looked back and found that the horse and fog had come closer. She was startled a bit, as she had not heard him approach.

"Humm, yes, but some are still younger than others here," Nightwatch said with a snort. "To me, you're still only a pup, my lord."

Entei huffed. "You were a good teacher, Nightwatch. Of course, I still remember your first lesson."

"And that was?" Shadow asked.

"Don't eat your teacher," Nightwatch answered. Shadow then had his large face dropped into her face. "The same rule applies to you my dear," he finished.

"Huh?"

"Do not let your feline blood think of me as a meal," Nightwatch said as he raised his head. "Are you ready for your second lesson?"

"Was that my first?" Shadow asked of his warning.

"No, that was Lord Entei's lesson," he whinnied. "But his lesson applies to you as well. Now, are you ready for your second lesson?"

"Second lesson? I don't remember the first one!" Shadow looked closely at the horse as it stared at her. "Do I know you?"

"Indeed," he said as he shook his mane. Shadow looked at the shiny gleam in his eyes and the marking on his forehead.

"I swear I've seen you before…" she said.

"Then look closer," Nightwatch said. Shadow stared at his face. She then saw the same face as if from a vision from long ago as it flashed within her mind. The diamond stone became a diamond-shaped white spot on his forehead. He stood proud under a spectacularly blue Earth sky. Shadow gasped as she saw herself as a young girl riding through the desert aboard a large black horse. This very same large black… Cheverian?

"Big Joe?" she asked him.

She felt Entei shake. "Big Joe?"

Nightwatch cleared his throat. "Well, I wasn't going to be called by my given name on her Earth, now was I?" He returned his look towards Shadow. His head was huge!

"Come child, climb on my back again. I need to give you your third lesson."

Shadow looked at all with her. "Umm, that was my second lesson?" she asked. "What did I learn?"

Nightwatch shook his head and snorted in her face. "To recognize a friend of course!" he grumbled. He turned to show her his right side and waited for her to mount.

Shadow stood up. Her knees were a bit wobbly from being at rest on the ground, and the sight of this huge horse before her made her step back and grab Entei's shoulder for support. Nightwatch bobbed his head, ushering her to his back. She stepped over to his side and touched the silky fur that covered him. She then looked around him. He watched her examine him with a puzzled look.

"Is there a problem?" he asked.

"Umm… I've ridden bare back before, mind you…" she said as she bent down, stood on her tippy-toes, and basically peeked and peered where she could, "but, how am I suppose to get up there with those wings in the way?"

Nightwatch looked a bit embarrassed as he opened one wing. The fog that shrouded the appendage followed its sweep outwards. Shadow then used her cat-like abilities to leap up on the horse's back. She settled in then looked over at Entei. She had only been with him a short time, but she felt worried for his condition.

"Are you going to be all right?" she asked. Entei stood up and stepped over to her. Even being on Nightwatch's back, Entei's head was still next to her face!

"A night with your dreams was all I needed," he said as he brushed his nose against her hip. "Enjoy your lesson. I will be here when you get back." He then jumped up against one of the towers behind them and proceeded to leap between others, ascending to the top of the nearest and tallest of them. From there, he peered down on the rider and horse. He then let fly a roar that shook the ground.

Nightwatch nodded to Entei, then turned and started to walk down the path. Shadow looked back and noticed Suicune following behind them with her head down. Nightwatch started a trot, and Suicune followed suit. Shadow felt that the beast seemed lonely. She then saw that it would jump into the trailing dark fog that Nightwatch was leaving behind himself and turn it a light gray. It seemed to switch back and forth between its sad trailing run, to a gleeful playing of tag with the Cheverian's fog trail.

"So, what lesson am I to get, Nightwatch?" Shadow asked as the horse continued to trot along the dirt path. Nightwatch bobbed his head and started to gain a little more speed.

"Long ago, my first lesson to you was what?" he asked in response. Shadow looked about then looked at her ride.

"Pardon?" Shadow asked, finding that Nightwatch was no longer being followed by Suicune.

"The summer that you and I spent together, where you learned how to ride on a horse… what did you learn?"

Shadow thought back to that summer long ago - to the large stallion that she rode both with and without a saddle. To the night she took him out alone and sped into the desert. She remembered how invigorating it had been. How…

"…Free…" she said in a slight haze of the memory. Nightwatch nodded.

"Indeed. I taught you freedom then. Tonight, I'll teach you to fly!"

With that, the Cheverian swept his wings wide as he charged into a full gallop. With two strong blasts, he swept them off the ground and into the night sky. A yipping from behind them told Shadow that Suicune had not departed, but was still following along the ground.

The stars spun and swirled to her eyes. The moon pirouetted and danced before her, as Nightwatch ascended into the sky. She felt the wind blasting into her face throwing her blond strands about her head, and the fur on her arms shift and move to the thrust of the wings as they pounded the night. This was glorious! He would change his attitude slightly, and she would feel them gain altitude. Then he would tip over, the forest below would rear up, and she would feel the ground coming up. She grabbed his neck to keep this roller coaster from getting out of hand!

"Have no fear, my dear. I shall never let you fall," Nightwatch said as he raised his head, making her sit back up.

"I'm not allowed to hug you?" she asked. "This is wonderful!"

He whinnied and flapped harder, gaining a great deal of speed. Shadow bent down slightly to allow the air to pass over them better, and to not get blasted off the horse's back. The land below raced by in the moonlight. The occasional lake or stream would flash the light up like a beacon.

Shadow watched in wonder as the flight went on. Her heart was pounding hard, and the speed nearly took her breath away. But the exhilaration of it all was stimulating. She cried out and heard her yell echo off the mountainsides as the Cheverian banked hard into a turn. It was a thrill, but not as much as the one that now loomed before her.

Nightwatch was heading into the mountains and towers. He shot in at full speed, and was twisting and dodging solid edifices that roared up in front of them. Something in Shadow's mind told her to lean into these hard banked turns. As she did, she could hear Nightwatch agree with her position. The turns became smoother, and more accurate. The mountains came and went, and Shadow looked back with glee. That was awesome!

She looked at the mountains that were now on their right. What had Entei said?

"Nightwatch, aren't we now on the side of the Dark Entei?" she asked her ride. He nodded.

"Yes, my dear. We must keep an eye out for her. She won't like to see me up here…"

"Why is that?" Shadow asked. Her question was answered by an energy ball flying by them. It lit up the night as if the sun had come up briefly and then went down just as fast. Shadow looked back and saw the other Entei – the Dark Entei. And she had another ball of energy forming in her gaping mouth.

"Looks like she's readying another orb," Shadow reported. Nightwatch glanced back and began pounding harder.

"No… that's a hyperbeam she's getting ready to fire – that first shot was just so she could get her bearings! She'll target us directly with this one!" As if to agree with him, the Dark Entei launched her attack, just as Nightwatch dropped. Shadow felt the hair on the back of her neck raise as the energy passed over their heads.

"Bank left!" Nightwatch yelled. Shadow leaned hard over to her side as the Cheverian made a snap turn back towards the towers of stone. Shadow saw the female Entei below. It took a step back seeing that the Cheverian was now coming towards her rather than away. Shadow wondered why.

"Get close to my back child," Nightwatch said. Shadow crouched as close as she could. She saw Nightwatch bring his forelegs and wings as close as he could to his body. She then saw that he was forming some sort of field from the diamond shaped crystal on his forehead. Before she realized it, their speed jumped as they passed over the Entei. She glanced under her arm at the beast behind them, and saw it tumbling over and over. She then felt Nightwatch start a turn, but she nearly lost her grip on him as her vision suddenly became a spot. He pulled out of the swing and her vision returned, but now she was out of breath.

When she could finally look up, she could see that the Entei was righting herself. She looked mad enough to spit, and was already starting another charge of energy. But Nightwatch struck first as Shadow was surprised by a beam of energy shooting away from his head. The Entei seemed to freeze in position momentarily then collapsed with a knocked silly expression on her face. Nightwatch landed next to her.

"What was all that about?" Shadow gasped as she attempted to regain her breath.

"She never liked my teachings," Nightwatch snorted.

"It wasn't the teachings," the female Entei said. "It was the classroom." She started to gather herself.

"I hope I didn't stun you too hard," Nightwatch asked with a touch of care in his voice, much to Shadow's surprise.

"Umm… maybe just a bit more than I expected," she said as she shook her head much like the other Entei had earlier. She then looked up at Nightwatch's rider and sat down with a thud. "So, this is your newest candidate?"

"Actually, she is an old student, back having a refresher course," the horse said with a nay. Shadow was now completely confused. But then it dawned on her.

"You two did that on purpose?" she asked with a bit of anger in her.

"You were a quick study, child," Nightwatch said. "You did exactly what was called of you while riding on me. Plus, you are the first student I've ever had that managed to stay on me while I did that turn back there."

Shadow was still trying to get her full breath back. "What do you mean? What would have happen if I had fallen off?"

"I would have caught you," the deep voice of the male Entei said as he appeared nearby. "Are you all right dear?"

The female Entei nodded. "Not that you would care," she snapped. The male Entei shook his head.

"I do care. Someday you may understand why, but I do care." The male Entei slowly turned away, then made a powerful leap that sent him away so quickly that Shadow only saw a spot less than a second later. He left a clap of thunder in his wake.

"That was rather rude," Nightwatch scolded. The Dark Entei just shrugged.

"He'll get over it. He always does…" she snidely said. "Besides, I get a kick seeing him pout over me like that." She then noticed the look she was getting from Shadow. "What?"

"How can you be so cruel to him?" Shadow asked.

"Oh come now," the Dark Entei said, turning away from her. "Surely you do the same to your favorite tease?"

There was silence. The Entei looked back. Shadow was looking down at the ground.

"Really… You think there isn't anyone?" Lady Entei turned and sat down again shaking her head. "Well, you do, weather you realize it or not."

Shadow looked up. "What do you mean?"

Dark Entei continued to shake her head, though it now was mixed with its own laughter. "Foolish child, do you not realize that there is someone out there who cares for you? I should know, since I see his nightmares…"

Shadow sat back on Nightwatch's back. The horse noticed the reaction to the Dark Entei and snorted. "Lady Entei, stop it!" he chided. The beast waved him off with her forepaw.

"I know more about you pathetic humans by your nightmares than you would want to know," the dark creature continued. She turned and started to slowly tread away. She stopped and glanced back. "He loves you, you know."

Shadow stared at the Dark Entei. Nightwatch glared.

"He has two recurring dreams that I can read," the Lady Entei continued as she began to walk away again. "One is loosing you to some disaster. That one at least varies from time to time… its not so boring… The other is being shot by someone named Giovanni. They were once… friends? He has that one every other night. Boring as hell…"

Giovanni - Just having his name spoken gave Shadow the willies. She noticed Nightwatch lower his head. She then noticed a diamond shape appearing on the Dark Entei's hind quarters.

"Lady Entei, SILENCE, or I will silence you! This is information that she does not need to hear!"

Lady Entei looked back. Shadow could hear her laughing. "As you will, my dear teacher," Entei said with a snicker. She then launched herself in the direction that the Entei of the Light had leapt earlier. She too left a trail of thunder behind herself.

Nightwatch hung his head and snorted. "Damn fool… I should have known better than to use her in my training… I am sorry, m'lady…"

"Who? Who did she mean?" Shadow asked.

Nightwatch shook his head. "You know who she meant, child. Listen to your heart - you'll know who she meant." Nightwatch flapped twice and rose off the ground from a standing start, then stroked the air hard to gain his forward movement. He took his time passing back through the passage in the mountains.

They exited the far side on a slow glide. Shadow seemed deep in thought. Nightwatch did a quick snap roll, making her grasp him around his massive neck.

"Stay alert child!" he said. "A sudden gust of wind could snatch you off me, and where would that leave you?"

She continued to lie across the back of his neck. "He… loves me?"

Nightwatch returned to pounding the air with his wing. He worked up some altitude before he answered her.

"He has… for some time now. I think it's probably because of your mutual home world."

Shadow sighed. "You know him?"

"I've met him… He's never been a student of mine, but I have advised him in the past." Nightwatch swayed a bit and then darted through a cloud bank. As he passed through the lower section, a golden sheen illuminated it. Exiting the cloud presented a large bird before them. Shadow raised her head as it shined brilliantly.

"Ho-Oh!" Nightwatch yelled. The bird looked back and nodded to him. "What brings you here old friend?"

The large bird squawked a few times and gestured to one side. Nightwatch and Shadow followed its movements. At a lower altitude was a fiery object. It was quickly gaining height.

"That looks like Moltres," Shadow said.

"I certainly hope you're correct child," the Cheverian said while watching the climbing firebird.

"Why? So far, I've seen nothing but Legendaries in this world," Shadow said. "Wait a minute, there's something different about this Moltres…"

Nightwatch snapped a look back at his rider. "There is? Quickly, what is it?"

Shadow was surprised by the sudden urgency of Nightwatch's request, so she studied the bird further. "I don't know… there's just something… it looks too small to be Moltres."

Nightwatch rolled slightly to one side, moving under the large rainbow colored Ho-Oh. "You have better eye sight than I do m'lady… All I see is a winged fireball."

As they moved closer, Shadow could see that the bird below them was not Moltres, but different. "I've seen Moltres before. This bird's neck is too short, and it has more fire on its body."

Nightwatch looked back briefly. "You have seen Moltres before?"

Shadow nodded. "I was on the quick response team that Team Rocket sent out during the Lugia incident two years ago," she said returning to observing the fiery creature ahead of them. The bird was now moving quite quickly. Nightwatch pounded his wings to keep up.

Suddenly, the bird made a turn that showed its profile to Nightwatch. He swallowed, then beat his wings forwards to slow them down and keep their distance from the burning creature. Shadow found herself being squished against the Cheverian's neck, her face planted squarely in his mane.

"Okay, what was that all about?" she complained while removing the hair from her face.

"Pyrawk! That's a Pyrawk!" he exclaimed to Shadow. He saw the questioning look on her face. "It's the pre-evolution to Moltres!"

Shadow looked at the bird again. "Pyrawk? I've never heard of that Pokémon… I didn't even think Moltres evolved! Yeow!"

Nightwatch dropped suddenly, and Shadow had to hang on for all she was worth, as a fiery dart shot overtop them. As she regained her place on Nightwatch's back, she could see that the fire-bolt was returning!

"It's an evolution that takes place only here in the Heart of the Stratus!" Nightwatch yelled as he dove again when the pesky needle of flame zipped by. "The Pyrawk lives its life here, transforms into an egg and is deposited in the world where it is needed when it is ready to evolve and take over for an older Moltres."

"It reverts?" Shadow yelped while keeping a steady eye on the small bird. It was turning about and now seemed to be heading for Ho-Oh. It zipped by the larger bird close enough to ruffle some feathers, but the Ho-Oh neither flinched nor attempted to avoid it. If anything, it seemed more irritated by the small fireball's antics.

"This world is a bit different than the other dimensional levels," Nightwatch said. "Some of the Pokémon deposited here by the sky path sometimes live their lives in reverse of the natural way things grow."

"That's strange. Look out!" They quickly turned to the right, avoiding the Pyrawk's latest strafe. "What is with this thing?"

"Nothing," Nightwatch snorted. "It's playing with us!" Shadow watched the bird make a long winding turn as it readied another attack run. She could see that it was having fun with them. But, as it made its final adjustments to sweep in on the horse and rider, a snowball splattered squarely in its face, leaving a trail of steam behind it, and causing it to veer slightly off course. Shadow raised her arms to protect herself from the fiery projectile that was about to hit her, when she felt a set of small talons grab her right arm. She peered out from underneath and looked at what was on her. The Pyrawk looked just as shocked by the location it now roosted on and made a squawk. It flapped its wings then folded them, as if it were happy to be sitting where it was now.

"Are you all right back there, m'lady?" Nightwatch asked as he tried to get a better view of what was going on behind him. Shadow craned back expecting the bird of fire to burn her. But she was surprised by the lack of any heat. She peeked over at the Pyrawk expecting a torrent of flames and only got a confused look from the bird and a slight yerp.

"It's… not hot at all!" she exclaimed.

"Of course not," Nightwatch said. "It's only a young one having some fun with us… now where did that snowball come from?"

Nightwatch's answer came in the form of yet another snowball, though this time it struck him square on the forehead. Another splayed across Shadow's left shoulder, and another hit the Ho-Oh.

Nightwatch shook off the attack. "Where is that rascal?" he steamed.

Shadow was busy knocking the snow off her shoulder. The Pyrawk was locked into a glare that seemed to target a nearby cloud. It jumped off her arm and left a fiery trail as it shot into it. Shadow could hear a slight sound of a tussle up there before a pair of birds dropped out from beneath it.

The one was the Pyrawk. Its flames seemed more intense than before, so this time it seemed more riled than before. The other was a blue bird with a long single streamer tail.

"Let me guess," Shadow said, "a pre-evolved Articuno?" Nightwatch nodded.

"Yes, a Cryawk, and if this is here, the Zyawk can't be far away…"

As if on cue, a jolt of electricity shot across the sky from cloud to cloud. The bolt ended with the streaking figure of a small black bird. From what Shadow could see, this bird had a yellow lightning bolt that ran from wing tip to wing tip and crossed over its chest. But she couldn't watch for long, as she had to cover her ears as a sonic boom followed the sparking bird's path. When she looked up again, she saw that the electricity it was generating was being sent in random bursts all around, but was shocking the other small semi-gods.

"It looks like we need a Lugia here!" Shadow yelped. "Do they have a pre-evolution version here as well?"

Nightwatch shook his head. "No, they have their young on the dimensional levels they live on."

Shadow pondered this as the battle royal exploded between the three young minor god birds. How could a legendary bird of the sea that was suppose to be the only one on a PokéWorld be able to have any offspring?

Nightwatch banked hard in the dark sky. He then started to climb high above the battling trio. Shadow watched the Ho-Oh as it followed them into the high clouds. As they cleared the mist, Shadow sat back as Nightwatch spread his wings wide. The dark cloud of fog that followed the Cheverian began to flow thick behind them. He then made a quick rolling turn, diving back into the cloud. He then set a course that had him in a slow long turn to the left. As he came out of the cloud, Shadow could see the three quarrelsome birds below. Nightwatch was placing them within a tunnel of black fog. After getting below them, he quickly snapped a turn that filled the remaining area sealing them in.

"Cover your eyes," he said to Shadow. She could hear the three birds squawking and complaining within the cloud of confusion the Cheverian had created. She buried her head into Nightwatch's mane again and held her eyes tightly shut. She could feel the horse turn and sway as he aimed for the fog bank.

"MIDNIGHT THUNDER!" Nightwatch commanded. Even with her eyes shut, Shadow could see a flash and she felt Nightwatch shudder backwards from some sort of recoil.

"Can I open my eyes?" she asked.

"Yes," was all Nightwatch said. She could feel him descending. When she opened her eyes and sat back up, she could see the Ho-Oh was across from them, and the three ruckus junior gods were tumbling around between them. All three were knocked silly. Ho-Oh moved in under the Cryawk and Zyawk. Shadow found Nightwatch maneuvering to take on the Pyrawk. She gathered the loopy bird in, making sure again that the flames were safe first. Once secured in her clutches, both Nightwatch and Ho-Oh turned towards the nearby towering peaks.

"Do these three get into this trouble often?" Shadow asked.

"Constantly," Nightwatch snorted, "though it's nice to have someone who can catch one on my back."

Shadow sat quietly with the Pyrawk in her lap. She gently stroked its back. It was then she realized that what looked like flames were actually feathers. It was no wonder she felt little heat from the bird. The swirled eye look left the face of the Pyrawk, and was replaced by the calm expression of it sleeping. She could hear it cooing softly. She noticed Nightwatch twisting his ears back towards her.

"Is it snoring?" he asked. He then laughed. "I've never seen that bird that content before."

"You just have to have a lady's touch," Shadow said with a smirk. Nightwatch coughed a laugh as he landed. Ho-Oh followed nearby. Shadow watched as it clumsily planted its claws into the grassy soil, nearly dropping the two birds on its back. She quickly dismounted Nightwatch, placed the Pyrawk on a grassy patch, and then headed over to the large multi-colored Legendary to remove its cargo.

"I can see why they say you fly continually," she commented to the Ho-Oh. She looked at it, half surprised that she let that blurt out. But the only reaction from the large bird was it lowering its head and looking a bit dejected. As soon as Shadow had removed the Cryawk, it turned and loped towards the edge of the tower. It dragged its massive tail behind it leaving a trail in the dust. At the edge, it spread its wings wide, gave a glance back, and then dropped off the cliff. Shadow held her breath until she saw it climbing up from below their plane.

"Was it something I said?" she asked Nightwatch as he stepped beside her. "I hope I didn't offend it."

"Hoof in mouth is not relegated to just animals with hooves I fear," he neighed. "I'm afraid that he's a bit sensitive about his appearance when he's on the ground."

"Oops!" Shadow said a bit ashamed. But she had little time to do anything about it, as the Cryawk was starting to stir from its confused state.

"Quickly, place her over at the far edge of the plateau," Nightwatch said while gesturing over towards the place he meant. She hurriedly jogged the bird to the location pointed out by the Cheverian. She placed it on the ground. When she looked back, she saw Nightwatch taking the Zyawk to a far point away from her. She then returned to the side of the Pyrawk.

"Best move the Pyrawk to that corner over there," Nightwatch told her as he returned from where he had deposited the electric bird. Shadow gathered up the firebird. As she walked it over to the far end of the plateau, she felt it rub its head against her shoulder. She looked at it, and found that it was looking back at her with a placid expression. She hadn't meant to, but it looked like she had tamed it.

"Is he supposed to act like this?" she asked the horse walking beside her. He snorted.

"Try putting him on your shoulder," he suggested.

Shadow looked back at the bundle of feathers in her hands and lifted him up to her right shoulder. The Pyrawk squawked and latched itself there, much to Shadow's surprise. He didn't squeeze hard with his claws, so there wasn't pain from where he snagged her, but looking at the claws made Shadow wince a bit. She found the hawk-like bird quite exuberant to be where he was, as he spread his wings wide and called out. The other two Pre-Legends slowly rose up from where they lay and looked back at their fellow bird with what Shadow thought looked like the mother of all hangovers.

"They don't seem impressed," Shadow noted.

"Give them a moment to get their bearings," Nightwatch said. He lowered his head readying his forehead jewel for anything.

The Pyrawk kept squawking and raising a ruckus on Shadow's shoulder. Shadow noticed that the other two birds were examining themselves closely, preening and sorting through their feathers as if checking on something.

"Nightwatch, do you know what this bird is saying?" she asked the Cheverian, hoping that he would be like Meowth and translate for her.

"He's giving the bird equivalent of 'king of the hill'," he replied, glancing back momentarily. "He says that he's found someone who cares for him."

"Whoa, all I did was catch him… umm… twice…" she said while watching the display on her shoulder. When she returned her gaze to the others, she saw that they were now more animated and squawking back at the firebird.

"Uh oh," Nightwatch said. Shadow kept her eyes on the others.

"What?"

"Those two have found your smell on their bodies… I think they might want to fight over you!"

Shadow's stomach jumped. "M-me? Why me?"

Nightwatch snorted. "Sometimes I think these three like to fight each other just because they do! But it would seem that they like your scent!"

"Great! I'll have to remember not to bathe so often!" as she crouched down. The other two birds were starting to make a run for her, and she wanted to be ready for them.

"STOP!" commanded Nightwatch. He had lowered his head, and was pointing his diamond shaped jewel between the two of them. "You will settle down, or I'll settle you down!"

Both birds stopped in their flight tracks, but neither was settled. Shadow watched in amazement as the Cryawk back flapped away from Nightwatch. But with each stroke of her wings, she grew in size, until they were now confronted with a royally ticked off Articuno!

"That's incredible!" Shadow exclaimed. "She evolved?"

"No," snapped Nightwatch, "it's only temporary. She just flexed her powers. She won't be able to hold it long."

"I hope you're right," Shadow yelped, "since the Zyawk is doing it too!"

The Zyawk indeed was growing, but seemed to lack the true form of the Zapdos. But it was just as miffed as the Cryawk had been. Nightwatch stood his ground.

"Pyrawk, you say put!" he ordered to the bird on Shadow's shoulder. "I will deal with this!" The bird began to complain bitterly until a snap look from the Cheverian quelled it.

Nightwatch spread his wings wide, and his eyes glowed as did the jewel on his forehead. Shadow thought she heard him chant.

"Cover of Darkness!" she did hear him say, and instantly the plateau was covered in the dark fog. Nightwatch vanished into the clouds, but his eyes and the diamond were still visible.

The pseudo Articuno yelled angrily at the blinding mist, and fired a streamer of ice. Shadow thought it struck Nightwatch square on, but she heard hoof beats to her right. Then a swooping sound pounded the sky, as the massive wings of the Cheverian struck the air. She heard him move overhead, much to the ice bird's dismay, since it seemed unable to target its beam properly. Shadow needed to scoot from side to side to avoid the first few rounds.

Suddenly, the darkness lit up like daytime. The Zyawk had fired off what it could of a Zapdos bolt of energy, and in the process, electrified almost everything within the cloud. Shadow and the Pyrawk managed to dodge the shock. Shadow heard something strike the ground nearby and edged towards it. She found the Cryawk dazed and steaming from the unexpected shock. She gathered the ice queen in her arms and slid back to where she had been before. The Pyrawk didn't seem to like the new companion, but Shadow hushed his complaints.

"Is that the best you can do?" she heard Nightwatch say from nearby. "Pathetic – how do you expect to become a Zapdos with a meager shock like that? Let me show you how it's done, lad."

Shadow scrambled to get the Pyrawk off her shoulder and underneath herself. She could feel the energy that Nightwatch was creating, and it felt bad.

Suddenly she saw a flash, and heard the Cheverian cry out in pain. The energy she was feeling dipped slightly, then returned with a vengeance.

"Ah, much better lad," he said after the outburst and obviously still in pain. "You managed to singe my wing. But watch this…"

Shadow felt the energy surge. It was a terrible dark energy that made her fur stand on end and her teeth ache. She quickly covered the birds with her body, clenched her eyes shut and waited for the power to strike. When it did, she nearly crushed the two birds under her, as the force of the concussion nearly flatten her.

She looked up from the crouched position she had been in. The fog was gone. When she looked to the sky, she could see that whatever force Nightwatch had set free, it had left an open ring in the clouds. She looked about and saw that the fog had not vanished, but had been pushed aside. The moonlight lit up the plateau illuminating the outer edges of the mist, and showing her a form on the ground across from them.

"Nightwatch!" she yelled. He was in a heap, but he was moving. She came to his side as he rolled himself upright.

"Damn, I hate doing that!" he complained. "Where is the Zyawk?"

Shadow looked about and saw nothing. "Nightwatch, was that necessary?"

He slowly climbed to his hooves. "Unfortunately, yes. These young ones sometimes need to be reminded who is the big cheese, so to say. In resent months, they have been becoming a bit brash and bold in their battles." He watched the Pyrawk remount Shadow's shoulder. "SOME more than others!" he added. The Pyrawk gave what Shadow could only describe to herself as a 'who, me?' look at the Cheverian. He snorted.

He looked at the expression he was getting from Shadow and shook his mane. "Do not worry. It would take much more than that last outburst of energy to rid us of these pests!" The Pyrawk squawked in protest. A weak sound came from the Cryawk, who was still lying on the ground. Shadow reached down and gathered her up as well. The Pyrawk seemed to grumble, but kept his cool.

A sound of an angry chirp made Nightwatch and Shadow look around to the other side of the plateau. There, bedraggled and singed, stood the Zyawk. The largeness it had struggled to gain was quashed, and it looked both madder than spit and thoroughly disgraced. It then noticed that Shadow was holding the Cryawk and had the Pyrawk on her shoulder again. It lowered its head and turned away.

"Hey you," it heard. Looking back, it found Shadowcat jogging up behind it. She gestured to her free shoulder. The Zyawk looked at the Pyrawk with a bit of distrust, and the firebird wasn't helping matters any as it squawked.

"You settle!" Shadow commanded. The Pyrawk did so, looking a bit ashamed at being scolded at. Shadow reached up and scratched it behind the head. It cooed and pushed against the hand that rubbed it. While its fellow pre-Legend was being distracted, the Zyawk leapt onto Shadow's free shoulder.

"Ow!" she harped. "Be careful with those claws, Zippy!"

"Zippy?" Nightwatch asked. "You just didn't name him Zippy, did you?"

The Zyawk squawked a happy sounding squawk. Shadow shrugged.

"I guess I did… didn't mean to…" she said with a smirk. "And what should I call you?" she asked the firebird. The Pyrawk squawked.

Nightwatch cleared his throat. "The others call him Cinder… and Zippy there is referred to as Volt."

"And what about her?" Shadow asked while holding up the still zonked Cryawk.

"Blizzard," Nightwatch grumbled. "It is not necessary to give every Pokémon a human name… But in these three's cases, they seem to prefer the names over their birthrights…"

"I don't know, I think Zippy the Zapdos is cute!" Shadow kidded the overly serious horse. "So, which do you prefer - Zippy or Volt?" The Zyawk gave an enthusiastic yarp. The Pyrawk looked at it with shock. Nightwatch rolled his eyes.

"You've got to be kidding… It's so… undignified!" the Cheverian said.

"Yarp!" it repeated. This brought a round of squawks from Cinder.

"What?" Shadow asked. Nightwatch just dropped his head and shook it.

"Now HE wants a new name…" Nightwatch sighed. "We need to take a rest." He trudged over to a rock that broke up the otherwise flat surface of the plateau and sat down. Shadow followed him over. She removed, if not a bit forcibly, the two birds from her shoulders, and placed them on either side of the rock. She then sat down beside it, still cradling the Cryawk.

"Blizzard still seems out of it," she noted. "Nightwatch, can you answer me a question?"

"Of course m'lady," he said as he settled down, and covered himself with his wings. "What can I answer for you?"

She looked at he bird resting in her lap. "Why am I here?" she asked. "I mean, just why was I brought here? Why am I being given this… treatment? I'm just a lone Team Rocket agent…"

Nightwatch snorted. "Phaa. Do not consider yourself JUST a Team Rocket Agent, ma'am… you are much more than anything they could muster. North understands this more than most, but then again, since he's from the same dimension as you are, he should."

Shadow examined the ground near her feet. Robert North - Even here, he was brought up.

"Was I brought here because of him?" she asked. Nightwatch sighed.

"No child," he replied quietly. "To tell you the truth, I was extremely surprised when I found that you of all people would be brought to the PokéWorld. It was a matter of fate that I would meet the same person I taught a lesson to on two different levels. And then there was the change**…"**

"The change?" Shadow saw the horse looking at her. She looked at herself and then returned her stare to the Cheverian. "Do you mean my fur?"

"It is different," he said with a slight nod of his head. "But no. The change I mean is the fact that you've grown up… When I teach lessons, I tend to be with my student for a long time – long enough to watch them grow up. But with you… I have never had a student return after such a long time."

Shadow laughed. "If you were Big Joe, I don't remember you talking to me back then," she remarked.

"Different locations require different approaches towards teaching," he said with a wink. "Obviously, speaking animals on your home world would have been rather unique, would they not?"

"Let alone a horse with wings…" Shadow added.

He grunted. "Well, it's not like I haven't left a mark in your history… I was seen once."

Shadow looked at the Cheverian hard. "What? Are you saying that you are the Pegasus from mythology?" He sheepishly nodded.

"The first time I visited your world, I mistakenly did so in my winged form, though I did choose to be there in white… The, umm, Greeks I believe they were, were rather impressed…"

"I believe it," Shadow howled. "Pegasus from the Greek legends is a Pokémon! That would cause all sorts of fun bringing that up in a history class!" Nightwatch shook with laughter.

Shadow sat back against the rock. She looked up and saw Cinder and Zippy looking down at her from above. They had settled down and nestled in. She guessed they had finally decided to act civil, at least for the time being.

She scrunched in and closed her eyes. Her thoughts went back to that summer when she had ridden Big Joe through the desert. It had been nearly ten years ago, just after the end of a school year that she would have preferred to forget. She had been depressed and dishearten by what she felt was a bad year, and now she was being foisted on this camp out in the middle of the desert nowhere. That was when she met Big Joe.

Joe was a large black horse that let no one ride him. At least that was what she had been told by the others in the camp. And she had been assigned him for two whole weeks.

She watched as two councilors were tossed aside by Joe. She watched as the same councilors tried to explain to the camp manager that the horse was dangerous as he calmly allowed the manager's brat son ride him about. This horse was smart.

But as she watched him trot around the paddock and listened to the complaints of the two councilors, she thought she felt something odd about Joe. For one thing, the brat kid on his back was being too quiet. Normally, this whirlwind of a child would have been under foot, into mischief, or just being the best sadistic kid he could be. But what she saw riding on Joe's back was a quiet solemn child with what looked like a glaze over his eyes. Afterwards, she heard that the child did start to torment the horse, and that he threw him into a nest of brambles. But she still had Big Joe listed as her horse for the first day of riding.

She had spent a restless night worrying about the large steed and what it might do with her. She got up early – sleeping was now out of the question – and headed for the stables to look in on this monster horse she would have her first ever ride on.

He was kept in an oversized stable. When she found him, he was facing away from the door. She stood there just staring at him.

"You're not going to eat me?" she mockingly remembered saying to him. She turned and planted her back against the door and sighed. "What am I doing here?" she asked herself. "I can't ride you… you scare me too much…"

She heard a snort. She looked up startled to see the huge head of Big Joe looking down at her. He was just staring at her, a calm look on his face. She slid down in shock at seeing him there. He bobbed his head up and down, making quiet whinnying sounds. She slowly raised her hand, half instinctively to protect herself, and half yearning to touch the muzzle of the beast. She was surprised when Joe planted his nose in her palm. She brushed over the soft fur on the bridge of his long face. All her fears seemed to melt away.

"Getting to know your horse?" she heard someone say. She looked over to the stable's door to find the old chief stable-hand. She smiled and continued to brush the fur. "Looks like he might be getting to know you as well," he added as he pulled a fresh bail of hay into the room.

"Is he really as mean as they say?" she asked. Joe snorted, but kept his nose under her hand.

"I think he's telling you now ma'am," the stable-hand said watching Joe's nuzzling. "He's a good judge of character… I think you'll find that old Joe will be good to you."

She smiled and stood up. She reached up and stroked her hand over Big Joe's black neck. He seemed pleased.

That morning, she had breakfast with her fellow campers. She would be on the largest of the horses there. Some of the others kidded her about being assigned 'the demon horse' but she paid them no mind. She and Big Joe had an understanding – she wouldn't act like a silly novice, and he wouldn't eat her.

Their first rides would be after breakfast, so the kids who were anxious wolfed down their dry scrambled eggs. She was one of them. But a mouthful was interrupted by a boy bursting into the room yelling "Those councilors are trying to break Big Joe again!"

She rushed down to the paddock to see what was going on. She arrived in time to see one of the young councilors flying through the air off the bucking back of Joe. The other one was holding a set of reigns like a whip, and was swinging them wildly at the ornery horse. Along side the fence she saw the old stable-hand watching and shaking his head.

"Someone get a gun!" the councilor with the reigns yelled. "This horse is uncontrollable!"

"Blasted summer help," the old man grumbled. "We don't shoot our horses just because you're an idiot!"

"What are they doing to Joe?" she yelled. The stable-hand smiled and gestured towards the angry steed.

"How about you show them how it's done before Joe stomps on them?" he asked with a wink.

Under normal circumstances, she may have asked if the man was out of his mind. But the sight of Joe in a panic made her not think of that at first. She climbed over the fence and stood in the paddock as her fellow camp-mates watched.

"Joe!" she yelled. "BIG JOE!"

"Kid!" the councilor with the whip shouted. "Get out of here! You'll get killed!"

Joe saw her below his rearing stance, and calmly dropped beside her. He ushered her towards the saddle as she gave the boy an angry stare. She reached up and grabbed the pommel and mounted the stirrup. As the two councilors watched, she sat down on Joe's back and took his reigns. He looked at them and snorted.

"You two leave my horse alone, hear?" she warned them – a moment later, she realized what she had said and blushed. Fortunately, in the early morning light, little could be seen of it.

"We'll make sure of that," another voice was heard. She looked over to see the senior councilor and the camp manager watching from the steps of the office hut. "Josh, bring those two wet ears over here!"

"Yes sir, Mr. Strom!" he said to the senior councilor, ushering the bruised pair out of the paddock. She watched from her high mount as the two were given a tongue lashing by the senior councilor. She did not see them the rest of her two weeks there.

That afternoon, as the other kids watched, she rode Big Joe with ease, as if she had ridden a horse all her life. He was easy to spot in the gathering of horses, as he stood at least 3 hands taller than the nearest steed. He still made many of the campers nervous, but as the two weeks progressed, and since they saw nothing to be afraid of, they became used to the sight of her and Big Joe.

Shadow looked up. Cinder and Zippy were fast asleep as was Blizzard, who somehow had climbed onto the back of Nightwatch. He was napping as well.

She closed her eyes and continued to reminisce. She remembered that the second week didn't end the way she wished it would have.

After a hard days ride, both rider and horse needed a good cool down. Part of the camp also dealt with the care and maintenance of the horses. And while many of the others would simply wash down their horse and put them away, Shadow remembered the pleasure she had in cleaning and grooming Big Joe. He would stand prim and proper for her as she washed him down and stroke his body with a hide brush. She would also do it at night when the others would be doing something that did not interest her. Such was the night before the last day of camp.

She had entered the stables and began to brush Big Joe, much to his pleasure. She slowly drew the bristles along his flank while humming peacefully to herself. As she rounded his chest though, something clanked against the window frame that ran along the back side of the stall and landed in the straw. Before she could see what it was it began to snap and pop in loud explosions! Someone had thrown firecrackers into the stables!

Even though the fireworks had landed in his stall, Big Joe never flinched. The horses in the stables with him though all began to panic. Shadow remembered that she did as well.

She saw the horse beside Big Joe. Its eyes were wide and riled. She saw it drop down below the wall of the stall, and then she saw the back wall buckle as it kicked at it in absolute fear. She also heard laughing – giggling… It was that brat! The brat son of the ranch manager had tossed firecrackers into Big Joe's stall!

The horses were all baying and calling. Each one was feeding on the other's excitement. The one beside Joe smashed the wall again, this time sending a sizable section out of the back, causing the wall behind Joe to collapse. The chestnut mare that had vented its fear against it dashed out of the hole and vanished into the night.

Shadow sat back. She remembered that it had been Joe that protected her. As the pieces of wood splintered away, he had gently moved to pin her against the stall's door, putting himself between the falling wood and any harm. As the ruckus settled, he moved aside slightly, though she remembered that she didn't want him to move away. She looked out the gaping hole in the wall and saw that the bratty boy was crying his head off, as a section of wall had landed on him.

"She did it! She did it!" he was crying as his father arrived to see what all that noise was about.

"You little…" she fumed. "You threw firecrackers into Joe's stall!" She held up the grooming brushes that were still attached to her hands as proof. "It's kind of hard to light those while I have these on!" She looked at his father as saw a look on his face that told her he agreed with her. Then she saw the smoldering straw next to her where the crackers had gone off and knew that the proof was in her favor. She stomped on the hot spot before they had another problem to deal with.

He turned to the old stable-hand who had come up beside him. "Josh, I'll call the hospital – Troy's arm is broken. See what you can do about getting that horse back and things settled here."

Joe leaned down and nudged his rider. She looked at him. She could have sworn he had gestured to her to get on. Before anyone could stop her, she had thrown the brushes off, grabbed a flashlight off a nearby shelf and had mounted bareback on Big Joe.

Big Joe took his partner for the ride of her life. He never swayed, or caused her to worry about falling off. He always made sure that she was safe, even when charging down a dusty path like his tail was on fire. But riding him at night through the desert, with every star blazing, she felt an incredible sense of freedom.

Shadow snickered. She remembered that she had almost forgotten just why they were out there. Big Joe had to stop to make her look around.

As it was, they did manage to find the stray horse and guided it back to the stables. With that, she was sent to bed along with the rest of the camp while the repairs were made to the wall. But no one slept much that night. They all wanted to hear from her just what happened, and what it was like riding Joe in the dark like that.

The next morning was the last full day of camp. That evening she would be heading home. Even with the all night chatting, she had managed to catch a little sleep. She jumped out of bed and tossed on some clothes. She wanted to be with Joe as much as she could that day.

But when she got to the stables, she found no signs of Big Joe. Nor did she see the chestnut mare that they had brought back. Then she noticed that ALL the horses were gone.

"Josh," she asked the old stable-hand as he came around the corner, "where's Joe?"

He looked like he hadn't slept all night, and probably hadn't. He shook his head and sadly plopped a crusty hand on her shoulder. "He's not here, missy," he said. "The stables were too damaged to house those two in their normal stalls, and until we reinforce the roof where the wall fell, we moved the horses to our backup stables at the owner's ranch, ten miles up the road. Sorry…"

Shadow grabbed her knees. The trip home that night flooded back to her. She remembered the feeling of being stripped of her freedom - the feeling that she was suddenly rooted to the ground - the feeling that she had been robbed of her chance to say goodbye to a friend. Even though the camp manager had planted his son before the campers to apologize, she wanted dearly to break his other arm so he had matching casts. From what she could see, the others in the camp wanted to do the same.

"Well, it's not like we needed to say goodbye, now is it?"

She looked up. Nightwatch was looking at her.

"I cried all the way home," she said.

He sighed. "Even if that wall had not fallen, you would not have seen me the next day. I was recalled just after we returned to the stables."

She looked at him confused. "Recalled?"

He nodded his head. "Yes, recalled here. The sky path, what you call the Daedalus Gate, arrives here about five of your years before it arrives on the PokéWorld. That night, I was needed to be here as Entei of the Light was being challenged by another upstart challenger." He noticed a strange look on her face. "It's all true…"

She snapped out of her odd look. "Oh, I believe you… it's just… the chief counselor… his name was… Strom?"

Nightwatch laughed. "Yes yes… our very own Captain Strom. Yes, he was the one who brought me there and back. I can transport myself to some levels, but not all, and not easily. He had offered me an easy ride that time."

Shadow was about to ask Nightwatch what he knew about the Captain, but she was interrupted by warm tongue licks in the face.

"Suicune!" she exclaimed as the Legendary dog continued to wash her face. "Where did you come from, ea?"

"Ah, there you are," a familiar voice spoke. Shadow looked up to see Myamoto standing beside the rock. The birds all momentarily got rambunctious as they all gathered themselves on the rock, then became little statues, as if they were ready for inspection. They all chirped at once.

"At ease," Mya mockingly said. The three pseudo-gods chirped again and settled on the rock again.

"What brings you here, Lady Mya?" Nightwatch asked as he rose from the ground.

"I felt that the doorway to the Heart of the Stratus was open," she said as she sat beside the birds. "I expected to find maybe Roy or Rob here. Entei told me that it was Shadowcat that had come to visit – correction, invited to visit I think he said." She looked down on Shadow and smiled. "I believe that you would have the envy of many in the Stratus. I think that even President Natsumi has not been invited here."

"A personal invite on my behalf," Nightwatch explained with a bow to Myamoto. "We are old friends." Mya seemed impressed.

"Really? A second lesson is indeed rare from you, Master Nightwatch," she giggled. "And how did the session go?"

"I'm not quite sure if it has completed yet," Shadow answered. Mya laughed, and Nightwatch coughed. "Is it?"

The early dawn was breaking on the plateau. Nightwatch looked at the first ray of the sun streaking up from the horizon. "For today, I'm afraid it has. But you may call on me at any time you wish." He returned his look towards his pupil and lowered his head towards her. The jewel on his forehead shined briefly. As it did, something metallic dropped in Shadow's lap. It was a pendant in the shape of a Pegasus with its wings spread wide and a diamond in the horse's forehead. The necklace that held it attached at the tip of each wing.

"If you need me… even if you just wish to get away for a bit, just hold this in your hand and call my name… either one that is," he added. "I will come."

He turned and opened his left wing. "We must return to where you entered the Heart," he said gesturing her onto his back. As she climbed aboard, she saw Myamoto step to the edge of the plateau. She jumped and floated off, but was shortly greeted by the rainbow wings of Ho-Oh. She lightly landed on the large bird's back. They turned and flew off towards the north. Meanwhile, the trio of semi-gods squawked and launched themselves. As Nightwatch took off, they followed in his slipstream.

Too soon, they were over the towers of the Entei. Shadow saw below the large beast looking up at her, as was the Dark Entei. She was lying on the ground nearby. Shadow didn't even want to know what those two had been up to.

"Well," he chortled, "did you have a good time? I see you made friends."

Nightwatch landed and Shadow dismounted. She ran over to the noble beast and hugged him. "I've had a wonderful time," she exclaimed. "Thank you." She pulled back from her grasp of his fur and looked him in the eye. "But I get this feeling that you had other reasons for bringing me here."

He sighed and nodded. "I did. As I told you, I see the dreams of good, my mate sees the nightmares. Together, we see the future."

Shadow took a step back. "I'm not sure I want to know my future," she said. "That's information that should come along as needed, not foretold."

Entei blinked. He looked back at his mate, who was shaking with laughter. "I told you she was a smart cookie!" she said.

"Wise, dear. She is wise." He returned his look upon Shadow. "She is very wise indeed. Very well, if I can not tell you the future in depth, I will tell you this… Your future will be full of extreme victories, and monumental defeats. My recommendation is that you remember your assets – your friends and companions. They will help you, and keep the victories ahead of the defeats."

Shadow smiled. "You make this sound almost like a game."

Entei nodded. "Life is a game, a battle. Your season is now. Having the right team makes for a better season. They help make wins, and are there for you when the losses mount. I know that isn't encouragement, but it is the truth."

Shadow hugged the furry beast again then turned away. She looked at all those present then looked around.

"Ummm, just how do I leave?" she asked.

She suddenly had a face full of Lady Entei. "Easy… like this!"

It was like being struck by a ton of bricks that was still on the truck delivering it. She felt the head-butt jolt her. She blinked. The ceiling to her room on the Stratus was there. She was back in her bed. A glance at the chronograph on the wall told her that it was only an hour after she had gone to bed. A day on the Heart of the Stratus went by without a notice at the League. She sighed and felt her head.

There was a lump there. And something was around her neck. She lifted it up to see a small Pegasus hanging from a gold chain.

"It was real!" she exclaimed. "Ow…" That was some lump on her forehead. She fell back onto the mattress.

She then heard a slight wheezing in the room with her. She lit a small lamp that was next to her bed. What it illuminated shocked her.

"Cinder, what are you doing here?"

The Pyrawk kept sleeping. Beside it sat a PokéBall that had flames painted on it that ran away from the beam emitter.

"Squeak!"

The sudden sound beside her made Shadow spin in her bed. There, Bucky sat on the edge of the bed, his arms crossed and shaking his head. He lifted off and floated about the new Pokémon. He looked back at Shadow and shook his head again.

"Squeak!"

"Hey, don't look at me, he followed me home… can I keep him?"

Bucky gave Shadow a look of utter shock. He then vanished.

"Uh… Bucky?"

The Pikachu angel reappeared, but this time with a larger one beside him.

"Huh… PK!"

He was rubbing his eye as if he'd just been awoken by the smaller Pokémon. "Okay, okay… what is it now Bucky?" he asked before looking at what the smaller one was pointing at. What he saw nearly popped his eye patch. He slowly moved to the other side of the room.

"Umm… Miss Shadow, just where did you find a Pyrawk?" he asked while never taking his eye off the sleeping bird.

"Uh... the Heart of the Stratus?" she said with a bit of confusion.

"Well that's obvious… when were you in the Heart?"

"About five minutes ago," another voice said. PK saw Myamoto sitting in a chair across from them.

"Ah," he said. "Asbestos… I recommend asbestos. Lots and lots of asbestos…"

"I already have Aslanti," Shadow said. "I'm quite used to the heat."

PK looked at her. "Aslanti is a mere matchstick compared to this one, ma'am," he said. "And one day, you may have to give him up," he added with a nod towards the bird.

"What do you mean?"

Mya tapped her hand. "The Pyrawk is the pre-evolution of the Moltres – if one needs to be replaced in any of the levels out there, he will have to be sent there."

Shadow nodded. She then brightened. "Well, until then, I have a new Pokémon, right?"

PK glared at Cinder. "An incredibly rare and skitterish one indeed to say the least. Do NOT let Giovanni know that you have it. I'd even keep this from North."

Mya looked at her student. "Like he doesn't already know…" PK had to shrug in agreement on that one.

"True… he does seem to have an open pass to the Heart… Ah well…"

Mya stifled a laugh. "The other two wanted to come as well." PK just stared at her.

"You're kidding… what did you do, make them stop fighting each other?"

Shadow cleared her throat. "Actually, they started fighting over me…"

PK sat down on the bed. "That's it, I've seen it all now…" He sighed and looked over at Shadow. Then back at the Pyrawk, who still was sleeping. "Did you capture him?"

"No," Shadow said, now a bit puzzled herself. "I thought they were going to stay when I left."

"Then where did the PokéBall come from?" PK asked. "And what type is that? A FireBall?"

Mya gagged slightly. "Well, it was a gift from the Lady Entei… an apology for head-butting you like that. As soon as she hit you, those three attacked her mercilessly. I guess that FireBall is probably best for it."

Shadow looked at the sleeping bird. "Only Cinder?" she asked.

"Don't be greedy," Mya scolded. "From what I was told, if Cinder is recalled, one of the others MAY replace him. There is no guarantee though." She looked at the young cat-lady as she wavered in the bed. She stood up and put her hand on her shoulder setting her back into the bed.

"You need your rest. We have much to do in the morning." She smiled at Shadow as she beckoned the two Pikachus to follow her. "And don't listen to any voices that tell you to get up and follow them for the rest of the night, you hear?"

"No problems there, Mya… no problems there…" She plopped her head in the pillow and was asleep before the door closed.

Shadow looked up the mountain. She had finished packing up her gear and put Baka and Aslanti into their PokéBalls. Now she just had to figure a way to the top of this cloud shrouded rock. At the top was the castle like building that her target, Jessebelle, was using as a base of operations, and where she would have taken some of the items she stole from North during that attack on the Splice and Dice labs that had occurred a few months back.

She reached into her Team Rocket decorated blouse and pulled a Pegasus shaped pendant out. She grasped it between the palms of her hands and said "Nightwatch" out loud. From above her, the sounds of beating wings told her that her ride had come. The flying horse landed nearby.

"Nightwatch!" she exclaimed as she came over and hugged him. He nuzzled her.

"It is good to see you again too, my dear. I am glad to see that you are safe."

Shadow stood back and looked at the Cheverian. "I am on a mission, Nightwatch. I am far from being safe."

He snorted. "Just as long as it's Golden R business…" Shadow nodded. "Then I am your horse."

Shadow noticed a look in his face. He was sad, not his chipper self. "Nightwatch, is there something wrong?"

He shook his mane. "It has not been a good night. If you are on a mission here, I would assume North was keeping you safe, in his own sort of way."

"He did tell me to stay on this mission, and not to return to Team Rocket Headquarters until the all clear was given." Shadow now had a sinking feeling running through the pit of her stomach. "Nightwatch, what has happened?"

He mumbled to himself. Something to Shadow's sharp hearing that said that he should learn to keep his big mouth shut. "Nothing my dear, this is not the time. Your mission is more important right now. Understand?"

Shadow could do little but nod. The com unit was of little help earlier that morning as well. From what little it told her, most of what she was missing was now happening in or near Pallet. And currently, she was nearly half a continent away from that small town she knew so much about. She took on a determined look on her face. She reached behind herself and pulled out the FireBall.

"Cinder, GO!" she yelled, tossing the ball into the air. It released a fiery streak that formed the Pyrawk. It called out then headed back towards Shadow as she mounted Nightwatch. It flapped and fluttered for a moment before coming to rest on the mane of Aslanti. The Pyrlion shook himself as he tried in vain to shake the bird free. Cinder squawked and settled into the fiery fur.

"Cinder," she commanded the Pyrawk, "you work as watch-out for us, okay? If they see us coming, I want you to deal with them as quickly as you can, then get back to us, right? And be accurate with your shots! No barrage shots. We need a good clean entry and exit – no fancy stuff, okay?"

He squawked an acknowledgment and was off. Shadow recalled her two loose Pokémon and patted her ride on his neck to let him know she was ready. Nightwatch nodded and proceeded to follow the burning dart into the sky.

The attack was on!

oOo

Characters from Pokémon ©2001-03, 05, 07 The Pokémon Company/Nintendo/Creatures/GameFreak  
The Observers ©2001-03, 05, 07 Denivan Media Services - Used with Permission  
Robert North, ©2001-03, 05, 07 The Lugia Project/DMS – Used with Permission  
Angel Myamoto ©2001-03, 05, 07 C. Ruester / TiredGamer - Used with Permission  
Shadowcat (Shadsie, Shadow), Aslanti the Pyrlion, Baka the Bakagoat ©2001-03, 05, 07 S. E. Nordwall

©2001-03, 05, 07 S. E. Nordwall/R. A. Stott/The Lugia Project II/DMS

Edited 0501.30, 0707.05


End file.
